Chhattisgarh government hauled up over CAG expose

Raipur, April 4 (IANS) Chhattisgarh's opposition Congress grilled the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state assembly Wednesday over a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointing to lapses that had led to huge revenue losses.

Congress members raised slogans and created a ruckus in the assembly over the CAG report and urged speaker Dharamlal Kaushik to allow a detailed discussion in the house about the CAG report that slammed various government departments and corporations for bypassing laws in key decisions that caused huge revenue loss to the state.

The Congress that has 39 members in a 90-member house staged a walk out when the speaker rejected demand for a debate on the issue.

The Congress members, who raised vociferous slogans against the BJP government, said that the CAG report had vindicated their long-standing charges that the saffron regime is mired into corruption.

The Congress has also announced to take the CAG expose against the BJP regime to public.

The CAG had in its report Tuesday for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, made several exposes and said that the state-owned Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) accepted lower rates for commercial mining of coal blocks in the state which had led to a revenue loss of over Rs.1,000 crore.

The report has made adverse comments against several other state-owned corporations such as Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) for causing a massive loss to the state by its decisions.