NDA seeks CBI probe to expose Chaudhary-Koda connection

Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi Tuesday, September 23, 2008

On the fourth day of the Monsoon session, Jharkhand Assembly witnessed uproar over alleged connection of Sanjay Chaudhary with former Chief Minister Madhu Koda. Sanjay, an alleged aide of Koda, was caught with unaccounted forex in Mumbai last week. MLAs of the main Opposition party, BJP, demonstrated with the play-cards out side the Assembly before the session started.

With the start of the session, BJP MLAs led by CP Singh, the chief whip of the party, and Arjun Munda, leader to the Opposition in the Assembly, thrice rushed to the well of the House during the first session.

The scheduled "question hour" and "call attention motion" could not be carried out as the House plunged in pandemonium nearly for one hour. Demanding an immediate discussion over the issue in the House, BJP MLA Saryu Rai moved an adjournment motion, which was rejected by the Speaker.

Arjun Munda termed it a serious issue and said the way Government money was illegally sent out of Jharkhand by people close to power could not be ignored. He was joined by his own party man Raghubar Das and Radhakrishna Kishore of JD(U) who criticised the Government for trying to hide the conspiracy.

Later, while talking to media on the sideline of the session, Munda alleged that the Government was under pressure to hush up this scam. "The man in question is the right hand of Koda and a proper inquiry by CBI would expose a big time scam operating in the State," Munda said.

The leaders also accused the Speaker for flouting the rule and ignoring the issues related to larger public interest. Rai accused the Speaker for not playing a fair role. "The rejection of adjournment motion by the Speaker is bad for democracy," he said.

As the House resumed, Deputy Speaker Stephen Marandi tabled the supplementary budget of Rs 437 crore. The amount would be used for the welfare of SC, ST classes, pension and post retirement benefits, education, establishment, district administration, flood control. On behalf of the Opposition, Rai and Kishore moved a cut motion, which was accepted by the Speaker. The House would debate the cut motion on Tuesday.

The afternoon session of the House debated over the drought-like situation in Palamu, where the Opposition criticised the State Government for its all-out failure to control the situation. Initiating the debate, Kishore said that the Government has no realisation of the gravity of the matter and it failed to deliver the promise it made. While drawing the attention of the State Government, Kishore said the Government despite officially announcing draught in Palamu for the last three years did not pay the farmers their claim of crop insurance.

"The farmers have not been paid the amount of crop insurance for 2006 and 2007. The number of farmers who registered themselves for crop insurance scheme reduced from 44,000 of the last years to 22,000 this year as they have lost their faith in Government," he said.

Inder Singh Namdhari, who intervened debate, accused the Government for punishing honest officials for speaking truth about the failure of the State Government on water irrigation. He alleged that the Government removed a particular development commissioner for his comment that after spending six hundred crores of rupees even six bucket of water could not be fetched out. The Speaker directed the Government to present the fact.