Jaitley flays Andhra, Bengal on CBI move

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday flayed the Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal governments for withdrawing "general consent" to the CBI for raids and investigations in their states, saying scams cannot be wiped off by such a decision and that it was against the countrys federal structure.

"We have a federal structure and under it the CBI was created initially for employees of the Central government and then to investigate very serious cases referred to it either by states or on court orders. Saradha and Naradha cannot be wiped off," he told the media after releasing the BJP's vision document and a manifesto for women for the upcoming assembly polls.

Jaitley was apparently referring to the Sarada ponzi scam and the Narada sting operation involving cash bribes both of which allegedly involved senior Trinamool Congress leaders in West Bengal.

In Andhra Pradesh, the minister said the decision to keep the CBI away was not motivated by any particular case but by the fear of "what is likely to happe". "It is only those who have a lot to hide will take step of saying let CBI not come to my state," he said.

On Friday, the two state governments had withdrawn the consent to the CBI, accusing the Centre of misusing the agency against opposition parties.

Jaitley said various Central government offices are located across the states and that the CBI probes complaints against officials posted there. Besides, many states also recommend CBI probes, he added.

He said some issues are linked to the Central departments and some have inter-state ramifications.

"Not giving permission to CBI is against the federal structure," he said.

Answering a query on international crude prices, he said the change in prices is not reflected immediately and that the prices of petroleum products have come down over the past few days.

"The government has reduced petroleum prices by Rs 2.50 per litre while state governments have also brought down the prices. But non-BJP governments have not reduced prices in this period," he said.

--IANS

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