MLA ready for probe

Siliguri, July 3: Siliguri MLA and former Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority chairman Rudranath Bhattacharya today said he was ready to face any inquiry into the corruption charges levelled against him by the Left Front and the Congress. Bhattacharya, who had been the SJDA chief from July 2011 to March 2013, was accused of corruption after Trinamul minister Gautam Deb exposed a case where SJDA engineers in connivance with private construction firms allegedly siphoned off Rs 50 crore in the name of building electric crematoriums and sewerage treatment plants. Three SJDA engineers and four officials from two firms were arrested. “I am ready to face any inquiry in connection with the corruption reported in the SJDA. Since I assumed office, I tried to maintain transparency. That is why the corruption was exposed so easily,” Bhattacharya said today. The Left Front and the Congress had sought CBI inquiry and Bhattacharya’s arrest. Yesterday, Congress leaders demonstrated at the SJDA with the same demand.