Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has shot another letter to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati over alleged irregularities in implementation of MNREGA in seven districts, reiterating his demand for a CBI probe into it.

Governance Now had reported on some of the scams in Varanasi, Sonebhadra, Kushinagar, Kanpur Dehat, Siddharth Nagar and Unnao in its October 16-30 issue.

Following the report, Ramesh had written his first letter to Mayawati over the irregularities and had also cited the GN story in a separate letter to V Narayanasamy, the minister of state at the prime minister's office.

In his fresh letter written on November 14, the minister cited the instances of alleged irregularities and corruption in implementation of the scheme in Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonebhadra, Kushinagar, Mirzapur and Sant Kabir Nagar and lamented that no action had been taken against the guilty.
"If the state government wants to act honestly and send a message to the people that it does not in any way want to save those who have looted funds from the schemes, then I feel that you should ask for a CBI probe in these districts," the minister wrote.

Citing an instance, he said no action has been taken against the chief development officer of Gonda about whose suspension there was an announcement, but it was never clear whether it was carried out.

"A CBI probe in the irregularities will send an unmistakable signal that those at the top of the government are determined to take action against those guilty of corruption," Ramesh wrote in the letter.

Mayawati had dismissed Ramesh’s first letter as politically motivated and had argued that the minister had not taken cognisance of action taken by the state government.