Vada nibhao fortnight a reminder, not boycott: Patel

Raipur, April 12, 2012

State Congress president Nandkumar Patel has said that the party vada nibhao fortnight would be a reminder to the government about its promises made during previous gram suraj campaign. “We will neither protest nor boycott gram suraj campaign, but would rather ask the government to tell the number of pending complaints it has redressed by far. We will also remind the government about the promises it made in its poll manifesto during previous Assembly elections,” he said while addressing to the PCC office-bearers and heads of DCC during strategy-formulating meet for vada nibhao fortnight starting April 16.

However, he said the Congress workers would wear a black band during vada nibhao fortnight as a mark of protest. He gave slogan to the partymen – jago, utho aur badlo (wake up, raise and change).

Patel further said that the party would also raise issue of corruption during the fortnight. “The CAG report has revealed the government’s corruption and now we will inform about this to the people,” he said.

The AICC secretary and state unit incharge secretary Bhakt Charandas said that the concept of gram suraj was actually conceived by Congress but the BJP copied it without comprehending its meaning. “In Chhattisgarh, the BJP government is ridiculing the concept of gram suraj,” he said.

CLP leader Ravindra Choubey said if inquired, the mining scams in the state could go beyond Rs 50000 crore. “The CAG has disclosed scam in only one coal block allocation and the government incurred loss of Rs 1052 crore. On probing into allocations of all coal blocks, iron ore and bauxite mines during BJP regime, the irregularities would definitely cross the figure of Rs 50000,” he said.

Senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla said it was BJP’s old habit to make promise and refuse to fulfill it. He said the party would remind the BJP about the promises it made during previous two Assembly elections.

The meeting was attended by Ramgopal Agrawal, Baijnath Chandrakar, Ramesh Warlyani, Subhash Sharma, Bhupesh Baghel, Devvrat Singh, Arun Vora, Fulodevi Netam, Dr Premsai Singh, Padma Manhar, Chandrabhan Barmate, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Abdul Hameed Hayat, Uday Mudliyar, Deepak, Dubey, Ved Prakash Sharma, Mahendra Chhabda, Sushil Anand Shukla, Vimalchand Surana, Pankaj Sharma, Ajay Agrawal, Janak Ram Verma, Omkar shah, Inderchand Dhariwal, Devendra Bahadur Singh, Lakheshwar Baghel, Shankar Sodhi, Rajnu Netam, Manohar Lunia, etc.

Jail bharo andolan from May 1

In the meeting, the party decided to start jail bharo andolan (court arrest) from May 1 in protest against government’s failure to provide employment to those MNREGA labourers whose job cards had been made. The workers will stage court arrest along with MNREGA labourers. During the meeting, a book – Congress Kranti, published by DCC Rajnandgaon was also released by the senior leaders. The meeting concluded with two-minute tribute to DCC Bijapur president Gulab Khatri who passed away recently.

Panchayat reps’ meet today

Raipur, Apr 12: State Congress president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey will jointly convene panchayat representatives’ meeting at Congress Bhawan on Friday. The meeting will start at 12 noon and will be attended by party’s panchayat representatives from Raipur and Bilaspur divisions, informed party chief spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi. In the meeting, the panchayat representatives will inform about the problems they were facing due to partial attitude of the government. Patel and Choubey will also ensure participation of panchayat representatives in party’s vada nibhao fortnight. The meeting will also be attended by state convenor of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan dr Shakrajeet Nayak.