Congress flays Chamling for buying awards with public money

Criticising Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling for seeking 'cheap publicity' over awards to him allegedly purchased with public money, Congress today urged people not to get swayed by it.

"The number of awards raining on Chamling in recent times and the manner in which the state government was advertising them have sowed sufficent doubts in the public mind about the ingenuity of the felicitations," Congress leader KN Upreti said in a statement here.

"It appears that the chief minister has done something extraordinary over the years to merit bountiful international and national awards to even tower over the achievements of the great leaders like the former prime ministers Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and other personalities like Amitabh Bachchan," he said.

Alleging that Chamling spent public money to buy awards for himself from anonymous organisations to cover up for the non-performance of his 'corrupt' and 'inefficient' government, Upreti said he has proof of being approached by Friendship Forum of India for felicitation.

The Forum had felicitated the chief minister.

He also mocked Chamling for getting a doctorate degree from a private university whose credentials have come under the scanner of the Union human resources development ministry and demanded an investigation by the Centre on the conferment of various awards to the chief minister, particularly by foreign organisations.