BJP renews demand for CBI probe into scams in ADCs

SHILLONG: BJP on Sunday upped the ante on its demand for CBI probe into misuse of central grants by district councils defying NPP’s challenge to the saffron party to quit the coalition.
State BJP president, Ernest Mawrie said that being in the opposition is important and respectful part of democracy and there is nothing wrong about sitting in the Opposition.
The BJP is ready to sit in the opposition if their demands to check corruption in the Autonomous District Councils are not being complied with, he said.
“We have highlighted the irregularities in the district council and we will continue oppose it and if similar irregularities come to light in the state, then we will highlight that as well,” Mawrie asserted.
He wondered why the senior leaders of the state had not spoken out on corruption. He urged the leaders of the coalition should introspect and change their representatives in the District Council if required.
Mawrie made it abundantly clear that the BJP would not support corruption at any level and would speak out against those seek personal gain at the expense of the common people.
To a query that many of the coalition partners had expressed that the BJP should have discussed the issue with its partners before coming out with a public statement, Mawrie said, “Although we are partners at the State level but at the council level we have no tie-up and we provide constructive opposition there”.
Meanwhile, the BJP West Jaintia Hills unit has asserted that it was ready to provide authentic documents to substantiate its charge of rampant corruption. The statement came as a sequel to NPP President WR Kharluki’s plea for substantiating the allegations made by Mawrie at a recent press conference.
“We we want to know from the NPP president that in the event of submitting proof before you, will you take any action against the CEM and Executive Committee of JHADC for their corruption,” a statement issued by the BJP West Jaintia Hills asked.
The statement accused the CEM of JHADC of speaking contradictorily on financial matters. It cited several inconsistencies in his statements relating to pending dues with the state government on revenue shares.
On May 1, CEM stated that JHADC was waiting for the state government to release the pending royalty share on minor and major mineral amounting to almost Rs. 100 crore.
On May 13, CEM even threatened to move the court (over the state government’s failure to release Rs 94.40 crore of royalty shares. On June 4, CEM, stated that the amount was around Rs 93 crore. During the Summer Session on July 28, CEM in the House made a statement that more than Rs 100 crore was pending. On September 10, he put the figure at almost Rs 50 crore.
Reiterating that corruption was rampant at the highest level in JHADC the statement alleged that the CEM put the council money in personal bank accounts. The party questioned how could Council money be in the personal account of the EC members.
“The BJP Jaintia Hills is ready to provide Kharlukhi with the all the documents needed to remove his doubt with regard to the rampant corruption in JHADC and we say whether Dr Kharlukhi will step down as NPP State president if corruption in the JHADC was substantiated, the party provocatively questioned.