Govt fails to give result in 9 years: Choubey

Raipur, March 29, 2012

Leader of opposition Ravindra Choubey on Thursday said that the government had completely failed to give results in nine years of its regime. “It could not reach to the remote rural pockets and hence its claims about development are empty boastings,” he said while speaking against budgetary demands for General Administration, Finance, Planning, Economy & Statistical, Energy, Mining, Public relations, Information Technology & Biotechnology and Aviation departments at Vidhan Sabha.

He alleged that anarchy prevailed in the state. “Even the ruling BJP’s own parliamentarians speak about administrative anarchy. The mafias are steering the state administration. Land, coal and jungle mafias are flourishing and expanding their gamut in the state,” he added.

He pointed that the government had also kept its eye shut towards illegal sand mining. “The sand mafia is highly active in Raipur and Durg districts but no action has been taken against it so far,” he said.

Hinting that the allocation of mines was not done fairly, he demanded from the government to conduct inquiry into the recommendations made for allocation.

On Energy department he said the government should clarify as why it had to purchase power despite its claims of generating surplus electricity. “Two years back, the government purchased power worth Rs 17000 crore and last year it purchased power worth Rs 21000 crore. It seems that that the state is power surplus only in papers,” he added.

He indicated that before division, the CSEB was a profit-making board but the existing power companies were incurring huge loss. He asked from the government as how the power companies were at loss despite being handled by IAS officials. He informed the House that currently the loss of power companies was about Rs 988 crores. “Is this the reason the government want to increase power tariff,” he asked.

He said the villagers were annoyed of frequent power cuts and urged the Chief Minister to direct the power companies to stop it.

He informed the House that water supply in many gram panchayats had been disrupted because due to non-payment of power bills. “The government must show generosity and incur the burden of power bill so that the villagers may get uninterrupted water supply,” he said.

He further asked the CM to heed the problems and demands of the contract labourers working at substations.

He expressed surprise over the contracts being given to specific contractors despite e-tendering process. He said such trend could be seen in every department. “A glaring example is of Water Resources Department where one specific contractor gets project works worth Rs 1600 crore-anicuts a couple of times in different biddings,” he said.

On Aviation sector he said none of the airport construction projects had progressed in the selected districts.