New Delhi - India's governing party on Monday axed two top officials tainted by corruption scandals that have embarrassed the country as it aspires to superpower status.
The Congress Party announced it was removing party parliament secretary Suresh Kalmadi, who was in charge of the scandal-plagued Commonwealth Games, and the Maharashtra state chief minister at the centre of a Mumbai housing scam.
Congress has also ordered high-level investigations into both sets of allegations.
Congress party spokeswoman Jayanti Natrajan said the moves were taken out of “total accountability and integrity”. But the political house-cleaning followed weeks of outcry by India's nationalist opposition.
India had hoped to boost its world reputation by hosting the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games but instead was humbled by allegations of corruption, construction delays and cost overruns. The cost of hosting the event ballooned to around $15 billion from the estimated $412 million. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party alleged millions were siphoned by companies run by relatives of Games officials.
Kalmadi remains a member of parliament, as well as head of the Games organising committee, which itself is under investigation.
Maharashtra state Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was removed after revelations that his mother-in-law and other relatives, as well as top officials, had cornered apartments in an upscale Mumbai neighbourhood meant for war veterans and widows.
The Adarsh Housing Society was initially planned as a modest, six-storey construction for the heroes of the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, but instead built as a 31-storey luxury high-rise despite regulations barring tall buildings along the coast. Nearly every one of the valuable units was sold at a cut-rate price to a clutch of top politicians, their kin and retired generals.
At the time the building was approved, Chavan was the revenue minister for the state, which includes Mumbai, and was in a position to procure the land for the project and influence its development.
Chavan said on Monday his resignation was not proof of guilt, and insisted the government had not been involved.
“I am 100 percent sure I will come out clean on this,” he was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.
Chavan last week directed municipal officials to begin proceedings to expel the residents and offered to resign last week, but the decision was postponed while Chavan played host to visiting President Barack Obama in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday. - Sapa