Congress to protest against Left's misrule in Tripura

Demanding a CBI probe into the siphoning off of government funds and accusing the Left Front of misrule in Tripura, the Congress on Friday said it will organise a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on June 17.

"Despite so many agitations in Tripura against the Left Front government, the state government's gross misrule, scams of hundreds of crores, siphoning off of central funds and other irregularities continue," Birajit Sinha, president of the main opposition Congress party, told reporters.

He said over 200 Congress workers led by senior leaders left from here on Friday to organise the sit-in demonstration.

"Top party leaders in Delhi might join the demonstration," he said.

Sinha, a former minister and the party's sitting legislator, said a delegation of party members will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on June 16 to apprise him of the CPI-M's mis-governance in the state.

He said the Left government's functionaries and its party leaders and cadres have embezzled several hundreds of crores of rupees in the last few years and only a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe can unearth the scams.

"The state government almost admitted that Rs.32 crore to Rs.40 crore of National Health Mission funds were embezzled in the eight districts of Tripura," Sinha added.

He accused Chief Minister Manik Sarkar of remaining a mute spectator to the corruption.

Congress' working president Ashish Saha said that 142 chit fund organisations and fake Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) illegally collected about Rs.1,172 crore from 14 lakh depositors because the state government turned a blind eye to it.

"Most of the chit funds and unauthorised NBFCs fled the state with the common man's money and the state government remained quiet," Saha said before leaving for New Delhi.