New Delhi, Sept 8: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday filed a complaint with the CBI seeking a probe into alleged scam in implementation of a supplementary nutrition scheme in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking to the media after filing complaint, AAP leaders demanded that Shivraj Singh Chouhan be dismissed as Madhya Pradesh chief minister as the department which implemented the scheme comes under him.
A delegation of the AAP MLAs in Delhi visited the CBI headquarters and lodged the complaint. “Whenever we raise any issue of corruption, the BJP asks us if we have filed any complaint. So, today we have lodged a complaint seeking an impartial probe into the Madhya Pradesh nutrition scheme scam. Now, take action,” AAP’s Greater Kailash MLA and chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told reporters outside the CBI headquarters here.
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AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak hoped that the CBI will start investigation into the alleged scam immediately. “We demand that Shivraj Singh Chouhan be dismissed as chief minister immediately,” Pathak added.
Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Bharadwaj alleged that “a big scam” worth crores of rupees has taken place in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh in the implementation of a supplementary nutrition scheme and the AAP MLAs will file a complaint with CBI seeking a probe into it.
The AAP spokesperson cited findings of the accountant general’s audit report and hinted at Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s involvement in it, saying the state women and child welfare department, which implemented the scheme, comes under him.
“It’s a big scam to the tune of crores of rupees,” Bharadwaj said.
Bharadwaj said the Madhya Pradesh government’s scheme having an outlay of Rs 2,500 crore pertained to providing “fortified food” to children in the age group of six months to three years, lactating mothers and girls who have dropped out of schools.
Terming the accountant general’s audit findings “shocking”, the AAP leader said the registration numbers of the vehicles mentioned as trucks, which were used in the transportation of the take-home ration under the supplementary nutrition scheme across 50 districts of Madhya Pradesh, turned out to be of “motorcycles, cars and water tankers”.
Besides, the state department which implemented the scheme claimed that “fortified food” was distributed among 36 lakh girls across 50 districts in Madhya Pradesh under the scheme while the total number of girls who dropped out of schools stood at 9,000 as per data with the state education department, he added.
“Such a big story of corruption is being run on TV channels for many days but no action has been taken by the CBI or the ED so far as the case is against a chief minister of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own party (BJP). The department which implemented the schemes comes under Shivraj Singh Chouhan,” he charged.
The Prime Minister should get the “scam” probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bharadwaj added.
The accountant general’s audit report on the take-home ration component of the supplementary nutrition programme ‘poshan-aahar’ has kicked up a political row in the state, with the Congress also alleging corruption in its implementation.
However, the Madhya Pradesh Government on Wednesday denied any irregularities in the implementation of the scheme and said the accountant general’s audit report on the programme was “not final”. (PTI)
