Bardhan for probe into assets of CMs, Ministers

Hyderabad, Nov 6 : Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary A B Bardhan today demanded that the Union Government order probe into the assets, including hidden ones of Chief Ministers and ministers in the wake of money laundering case against former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda.

Addressing a press conference here, he said it was not just Mr Koda, others too had amassed disproportionate assets. 'The Centre should order a thorough probe into the assets, including hidden ones of various Chief Ministers and Ministers.' He opined that it was appropriate to order a multi-agency probe as several agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation, would have to look into them.

'After criminalisation of politics, now it was money power which was vitiating the electoral process,' he lamented.

After becoming the Jharkhand Chief Minister in 2006, Mr Koda had purchased mines in several countries allegedly with 'ill-gotten wealth.' On the political crisis that had gripped the ruling BJP in Karnataka, Mr Bardhan alleged that 'Bellary mining mafia,' through Karnataka Tourism Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, was threatening to destabilise the state government there.

Some Congress leaders were also covertly extending support to the mining mafia, he said and claimed that both the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress had played into the hands of the mining mafia.

Referring to counter-insurgency operations, the CPI leader said the Centre should ensure that poor people were not affected because of the operations against extremists.

He said he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard to treat the left-wing extremism as a socio-economic problem and not merely as law and order issue.

The CPI disapproved violence indulged in by the Maoists, he added.

--UNI

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