Shillong, July 9: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma has rejected the demand to remove James Sangma as Power Minister as the government has instituted an independent inquiry to probe the ‘alleged scam’ in implementation of Saubhagya scheme in the state which has caused a loss of Rs 149.12 crore to the state and provided ‘undue favour’ to a particular company.

Talking to reporters on Friday, the CM said the government has setup an independent inquiry that is being headed by a retired judge and this kind of demand is completely undermining the independent committee.

He clarified that the power minister has no role to play here as the committee is completely independent and government does not interfere with MeECL’s functioning as it is an autonomous body.

“This committee is completely independent in nature and the MeECL is an autonomous body. Therefore, from the government side, there is absolutely no interference even in the day to day functioning. Therefore, there is no need or any question of removing the Power Minister from his portfolio at this point in time,” he said.

He added that the independent committee has been given a stipulated time frame to submit a report on its findings.

The demand is in light of the “interim audit report” of the Comptroller General of India (CAG) observing various irregularities in the award of the contract for the scheme to the contractor thereby causing a loss of Rs 149.12 crore to the state besides undue favour to a particular company. It was also alleged that the contracts were awarded at a price which is above 50% over and above the estimated cost of the project as the contactors have quoted the price of materials way above the estimated or existing market prices.