UPA institutionalising corruption: Karat

“You have caught one (Suresh) Kalmadi,but he only had a budget of around Rs 2,000 crores,but more than Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 crores have been siphoned off in the Commonwealth Games scam,” he said,during a function to commemorate the 123rd birth anniversary of Muzaffar Ahmed,known as the pioneer of the Communist movement in India.

Karat said price rise,land grab,illegal mining,hoarding and black money issues were because of the government’s “neo-liberal policy that sustains corruption”.

Alleging that the UPA government had come up with a “diluted” Lokpal Bill,he said,“After a hue and cry the government agreed for a Lokpal,but that will be a very weak Lokpal,which will not have much power.

“We had wanted the Prime Minister to be under the ambit of the Lokpal,but it has not happened,” he said,questioning the independence of the Lokpal members.

The senior CPI(M) leader alleged the government was “refusing to stop future trading in food grains” leading to rise in prices of food items.

“It is the government’s policies that is causing price rise of essential commodities. Despite international prices moving down,the government raised petroleum products prices recently,” Karat said.