BHUBANESWAR: Excise Minister AU Singhdeo on Thursday resigned on ‘moral grounds’ two days after the liquor tragedy rocked State. The tragedy has so far claimed 33 lives in Cuttack and Khurda districts. Singhdeo sent his resignation through a special messenger to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s office, sources said. The Chief Minister was campaigning in Ganjam district when the resignation letter was received by his office. After his return, Naveen told mediapersons that he has received the resignation letter of Singhdeo and forwarded it to Governor MC Bhandare for acceptance. ‘’I am pained by this tragedy and take moral responsibility. I would not like the Chief Minister to draw flak on this front,’’ Singhdeo told mediapersons. Dubbing the resignation as drama to present a clean image before panchayat polls, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said Singhdeo’s resignation is meaningless. The Chief Minister should step down on moral grounds. He reiterated his demand for a probe into the incident by Lokpal. However, welcoming the action of Singhdeo, Congress general secretary Arya Kumar Gyanendra said his party had demanded it. BJP’s State president Jual Oram and leader of BJP Legislature Party KV Singhdeo demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister and a compensation of ` 10 lakh to families of each of the victims. Singhdeo was the fifth minister to quit since BJD came to power for the third time in 2009. In February last year Pramila Mallick had resigned as Women and Child Development minister, while Damodar Rout, Praveen Bhanjadeo and Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha had been dropped from the ministry in May. Pradip Maharathy had to resign last month as Agriculture minister over the alleged gang rape case in Pipili.ILLEGAL UNIT BUSTED: Bhawanipatna: Excise sleuths busted an illegal liquor bottling unit in Kalahandi. P5
Comments
0 comment