The allegations against the Congress come in the wake of the Lok Ayukta in Karnataka submitting its report on the alleged misuse of funds by the state government while undertaking flood relief work.
A Kannada newspaper alleged that the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and its president R V Deshpande misused Rs 75 lakh (Rs 7.5 million) collected by the party for flood relief.
The allegation: The newspaper alleged that part of the funds the Congress collected were used to buy tiles for the renovation of the party office. Some funds were used to buy T-shirts for Youth Congress workers and also to buy an air ticket for Union Minister M V Rajasekharan.
Further, the newspaper alleged that the amount was kept in a fixed deposit and not distributed to the victims.
After the report was published, the state Congress party leadership, instead of setting up an inquiry to probe the charges, requested a retired judge to find out who had leaked the information to the Kannada daily!
Over 170 people were killed and thousands left homeless in the rains and flash floods from October 30 to November 3 in several districts in north Karnataka last year. Political parties in Karnataka had then decided to collect funds for the victims.
Deshpande denies all the allegations. He told rediff.com, "You interpret it the way you want to. There is no substance to the charges. I smell a conspiracy to malign my image and also that of the party. The party high command will decide on it."
"The tiles were purchased not for the Congress office, it was given to those in the coastal belt who were affected by the floods. The T-shirts were purchased for the Congress workers so that they could be identified while collecting funds and also carrying out work during the relief operations. Rajashekharan was sent to New Delhi to lobby for more funds and hence we decided to sponsor his air ticket," Deshpande, whose son is married to Union Aviation Minister Praful Patel's daughter, added.
Congress insiders say Deshpande -- reportedly, one of the richest candidates in last year's election -- is very wealthy and would not indulge in such petty corruption.
Congress leaders in Karnataka are intrigued by the timing of the leak, which, they say, is clearly intended at embarrassing Deshpande.
Karnataka Lok Ayukta Justice N Santhosh Hegde told rediff.com that he has probed the complaint against the Karnataka government and submitted a report to the state chief secretary on Monday. Justice Hegde said he could not entertain the complaint against Deshpande since it had been made against an individual who is not a public servant.
"There is a complaint against the state government," the judge said, "and based on this, my officials visited various flood-hit districts to get the correct picture. We have got a shocking picture from these places and we have put that down in the report. It has been handed over to the government. Although it is difficult to point the exact amount of the misuse, there are some glaring irregularities that my team has found."
"We have found that the compensation awarded to the people is less than half of what was promised. We have found many cases where compensation of Rs 31,000 was promised, but only Rs 7,000 was released. This is gross misappropriation of funds," Justice Hegde said.
"Moreover, the compensation has not been released on time. There are several cases where the victims have said that bribes were demanded for release of compensation. Most have not been able to pay that bribe and hence are still waiting for compensation," the judge added.
"Another glaring problem is that just four houses (according to the chief minister) have been constructed in the name of flood relief. The requirement as per our assessment is 20,000 houses. This means that people who have lost everything will have to wait longer since the monsoon has set in," Justice Hegde said.
The complaint against the state: The complaint states that the chief minister had claimed that he had raised Rs 320 crore (Rs 3.2 billion) from the public and industrialists towards flood relief.
However following the chief minister's statement, the state revenue secretary revealed that only Rs 102 crore (Rs 1.02 billion) had been collected.
The complaint filed before the Lok Ayukta sought a probe into the difference in the amounts claimed by the chief minister and the revenue secretary.
