Paddy scam: Confed chief resigns

One reason was that the party could gather from its own channel that the Enforcement Branch inquiry into the scam, which is still underway, had substantiated most of the allegations of corruptions in the procurement of paddy. The party anticipated certain police action soon, and guarded itself well in advance. Asked about the status of the inquiry, a senior EB official admitted that there might be some action soon.

Officially, however, the party said the action was taken to lessen pressure on Biswas. The secretary of the All India Forward Bloc, Ashok Ghosh, said: 8220;Things were getting messy as Biswas was tied up with too many responsibilities. We therefore thought it should be rationalised. Biswas will have other responsibilities. He resigned voluntarily.8221; Biswas, on his part, said he wanted to work more in 8220;direct contact with the people8221;. He added: 8220;That8217;s why I resigned. CONFED, under me, was doing fine, having earned a profit of over Rs 1.62 crore. But now Reliance and other big players are coming and will do what CONFED used to do. If the inquiry finds any slip, proper action should be taken.8221;