Congress alleges Rs 36,000 crore PDS scam in Chhattisgarh, wants CM Raman Singh to quit

NEW DELHI: Billing it the “mother of all scams“, Congress on Saturday demanded the resignation of Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh in the alleged Rs 36,000crore “public distribution“ scandal. The fresh provocation, Congress said, was that the CM and family had not been named despite a fresh challan being filed in the court last month.
“Following raids on 36 offices of the State Civil Supplies Corporation, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) filed a challan but it is just a shoddy cover-up job to save the CM,“ AICC spokesman Ajay Maken alleged.

He alleged the ACB found the names of CM Singh, his wife and sister-in-law in a di ary recovered from a raid on an accused. He said the documents seized by the ACB have names and addresses of Singh's sister-in-law, his personal secretary and OSD.

Addressing a press meet along with Chhattisgarh party chief Bhupesh Baghel and leader of opposition TS Singhdeo, Maken said the on ly way to unearth the truth was to set up a Special Investigation Team monitored by the Supreme Court.

“In order to ensure a fair investigation, Raman Singh must be sacked immediately ,“ the spokesman said.

Maken claimed the magnitude of the PDS scam could be judged from the fact that during the last 11 years of BJP rule in the state, the amount spent from the public exchequer on procurement of paddy and other items came up to about `Rs 1.5 lakh crore'.

“The CM created a welloiled corruption machine in connivance with rice mill owners, PDS shop owners and public officials to earn thousands of crores as kickbacks and commission,“ he said.

Besides, he claimed, “similar corruption“ in procurement of other commodities like salt, gram, kerosene, wheat was committed through the State Civil Supplies Corporation. Citing another `diary entry', Maken said CM Singh gave Rs 16 crore each to BJP headquarters and RSS office in Nagpur.He demanded a response from the two organizations.