Days after Chief Minister Mayawati wrote to the Prime Minister, saying Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had a political motive in seeking a CBI inquiry into the alleged fraud in the MGNREGS in seven districts of UP, her Rural Development Minister Daddu Prasad has now written directly to Ramesh, blaming his ministry for stalling important initiatives by not responding to the state government’s requests. In a four-page letter, Daddu Prasad has said that the UP government had sought clarification on three important issues. But, in the absence of any response from the union ministry, the state government could not implement ideas such as appointment of ombudsmen, implementing the business correspondence model for making payments, and guidelines for procurement at panchayat level. Prasad has repeated all points the Chief Minister had made in her letter to the PM, like “zero tolerance” to corruption, details of action taken in cases of irregularities, and that an opinion about the entire state cannot be formed on the basis of incidents reported from just seven districts. In his letter to the Chief Minister on October 24, Ramesh had sought her “concurrence” for a CBI probe in seven districts, where he alleged “deliberate embezzlement of funds” and inaction of the state government. Prasad has told Ramesh that the UP government was the first state to publish advertisements for the appointment of an ombudsmen in all districts to hear grievances related to MGNREGS two years back, but could not proceed due to contradictions and lack of clarity in the ministry’s guidelines. A few months back, the UP government sought clarifications from the ministry on 27 points regarding the appointment of an ombudsman, but there had been no response to date, he said. Three months back, the state government sought clarifications regarding the procedure to be followed for the implementation of the “business correspondence model” for providing banking facilities to workers at their doorsteps. These clarifications were necessary because the guidelines issued by the ministry were contradictory to the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, Daddu Prasad has said in his letter. While the ministry had asked the states to go ahead with the tender process to select the bank to provide such services at the grassroot level, the RBI talks of “service area approach” in this regard. Under the RBI’s approach, one bank acts as the lead bank in an area and all other banks work in co-ordination with it. In this case too, there has been no reply from the ministry. Prasad has reminded Ramesh about the UP government’s request for a “procurement manual” so that panchayats could be given clear instructions about what to purchase from where for construction works undertaken under the scheme. He has also complained that the ministry had posted on its site an inspection report that talks of shortcomings in NREGA implementation across UP, but removed another report which mentions how the state had improved upon certain points in NREGA implementation. PIL alleges misappropriation of MNREGA funds Allahabad: A Public Interest Litigation, alleging misappropriation of crores of rupees allocated for the MNREGA scheme in Uttar Pradesh, was filed in the Allahabad High Court on Monday. The litigant, a resident of Gautam Buddh Nagar district, has alleged that crores of rupees allocated for the rural employment guarantee scheme had been misappropriated in districts like Mahoba, Gonda, Sonebhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Kushinagar, Balrampur and Mirzapur.PTI