Congress will expose corruption: Pachauri

Bhopal, Feb 17: Expressing concern over the alleged corruption right from top to bottom under the present BJP regime in the state, newly appointed Madhya Pradesh Congress President Suresh Pachouri said that Congress will expose misdeeds of the present government. If needed necessary steps including legal action would also be taken if corrupt practices continue, he added.

He was talking to media persons for the first time after assuming office. Pachouri said that the BJP government had came to power in Madhya Pradesh on the B-S-P (Bijli, sadak, Pani) plank and promised to remove all the problems related to these sectors within six months of forming the government, but it has failed to fulfill its commitments made during 2003 Assembly elections. He alleged that the law and order situation in the state has worsened and kidnappings and loot have become the order of the day. Besides, Madhya Pradesh tops in the cases of atrocities against women, children and people of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Pachouri criticised the ruling BJP's allegations that Madhya Pradesh had been given step-motherly treatment in terms of implementing the Centrally funded schemes adding that every year there has been a substantial increase in the fund allocation by the Congress-led UPA Government. He also gave figures of different schemes to substantiate his statement. He informed that Centre's share of power to the state that has been increased from 1800 MW to 2800 MW, but it is a pity that the state sold 800 MW of Power to other states earning crores at the cost of power to the farmers and agriculturists who are not getting power even for irrigation. 

Expressing gratitude towards Congress President Sonia Gandhi for providing him this responsibility, Pachouri said that the party has been rejuvenated with his appointment as state chief since all the senior central party leaders including Arjun Singh, Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, Kantilal Bhuria and Jyotiraditya Scindia had assured of full assistance and the party would take the BJP heads on in the upcoming state polls slated for November this year.  Talking about the formation of state Congress committee, he stated that he was in the position of recommending only. "It has to be decided by AICC General Secretary V Narayan Sami and AICC Chief Sonia Gandhi," he added.