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Kalraj Misra quits UP Cabinet following corruption charge

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

In a dramatic development today during the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly session, controversial Public Works Minister Kalraj Misra offered to resign in the wake of corruption charges being levelled against him.

The minister, who is alleged to have acquired huge properties in different parts of the country, was openly accused by the Opposition of having amassed wealth through corruption in transfers and postings of the engineers in his department.

The charge, made yesterday by Baburam Yadav, a prominent Samajwadi Party legislator, was based on a letter purportedly written by the PWD Executive Engineers' Association.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hukum Singh tried to defend Misra by terming the charge unfounded. But the angry Samajwadi Party members accused him of trying to "mislead the House". Yadav and some of his colleagues said, "The public works minister has himself admitted that he was aware of such a letter."

Misra, who had yesterday flatly denied the charge, then surprised everyone by offering to quit. "It would be in the fitness of things for me to resign from ministership," he said.

Claiming to have always lived a clean, principled life, Misra said, "I consider it necessary to step down on moral grounds, so that the charges can be investigated impartially by any agency."

He later told reporters, "I have handed over my resignation to the chief minister."

But Ram Prakash Gupta refused to take cognisance of the resignation. "I have put it in my pocket," he quipped. "I don't think there is any need to do anything further about it."

Meanwhile, Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi has summoned office-bearers of the engineers' association tomorrow, leading to speculation that the president, Ambika Prasad Misra, will be pressured into denying his own signature on the letter, so that his namesake gets a clean chit. Little wonder then that the minister, when asked if he would reconsider his decision, remarked, "I haven't given a thought to that."

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