Tourism minister Gautam Deb on Tuesday took to task Siliguri mayor and MLA, Asok Bhattacharya, for his allegations of corruption at the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and development boards set up by the state government for ethnic communities in the Hills.

The minister also said that there were irregularities in the Swajaldhara drinking water project undertaken by the Left Front-run Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad (SMP). Mr Bhattacharya had on Monday demanded “highest level” of investigations into the alleged corruption in the Hill bodies.

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“How can parties, which do not have any relevance, and those who do not have any idea of the ground realities in the Hills, make such allegations, and this too, even before an audit is yet to take place?” Mr Deb said.

“The new GTA board has not yet completed even six months. Let it cross at least a one-year mark. How can such allegations be made by sitting in Siliguri even before the audit is conducted?” he added.

He further said that he had learnt about corruption in the Swajaldhara project in the Left Front-run Siliguri SMP. “I have learnt of a corruption in the Swajal Dhara drinking water project at the SMP. An investigation order is to be issued. I am collecting a detailed information on this. I think the Left leaders were talking about this corruption,” Mr Deb said.

Swajaldhara, a project funded by the Centre under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), has been launched for ensuring safe and adequate drinking water supply through hand-pumps, and piped water supply.

Apart from the water supply to all rural areas, it is also meant to supply water to 12 tea plantations that fall under the SMP.

District engineer of the SMP Supriyo Mondal has filed a police complaint on 17 March on the alleged irregularities in the project work being carried out at the Uttor Bansgaon Kismat Mouza under the Phansidewa block and in other locations of four blocks under the SMP between 2010 and 2013.

During that period, the SMP board was run by the Left Front after winning the elections in 2009, while Pascal Minz was the Sabhadhipati.

The tenure of the board ended following a no-confidence motion moved by the Trinamul Congress against Mr Minz on 7 October, 2013 and in the process, the CPI-M was ejected from the SMP.

Sources said the police have handed over the case to the CID, which will carry out investigations on the allegations of irregularities in the project. According to the complaint, an inspection was conducted between 2013 and 2014 and it revealed that there had been ‘gross violation of formalities including deviation of the schemes and works that have not been done as per specifications.’

It further stated that the schemes were executed by the then Village Water Sanitation Committee and an NGO, Fatapukur Rural Development Society, during the period of 2010 and 2013.

“The allegations have been raised suddenly to gain political mileage,” present SMP sabhadhipati, Tapas Sarkar, however, said. Meanwhile, Minister Deb on Tuesday left for Assam on a two-day tour, along with municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority chairman Sourav Chakrabarty. According to him, the purpose of the visit was to oversee party organisational issues.