Jairam comes calling Saturday

BHUBANESWAR: With the State under CBI scanner for alleged irregularities in rural jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the two-day visit of Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, beginning Saturday, assumes significance.Although details of his tour are not known, the Minister is likely to visit Ganjam and Kandhamal districts where he will review the implementation of various anti-poverty schemes including the wage-employment programme under NREGS.Ganjam is one the districts where  massive irregularities in the implementation of the wage employment programme were reported.His proposed visit to the communally sensitive Kandhamal district is equally important. The district witnessed one of the worst communal riots in the State in 2008 in the wake of the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.Jairam is likely to review the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families and implementation of various schemes funded by his ministry.The CBI is now probing the rural job scam in six western Orissa districts of Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Nuapada and Rayagada following a Supreme Court directive on May 12. The Central agency has been asked to submit a status report in six months.Jairam is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after his visit to the two districts. Private Secretary to the Union  Minister R Vineel Krishna, who had hit the national headlines following his abduction by Maoists during his stint as Malkangiri district collector in February, will accompany Jairam.