Congress has made a mindset to drag Chief Minister Raman Singh to court on reportedly illegal land acquisition done BALCO in Korba and controversial allotment of provisional lease (PL) for mining to Ma Bamleshwari Minerals in Rajnandgaon. PCC president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey clarified the party intentions before the media at Congress Bhawan on Tuesday.
“The CM and former Chief Secretary (CS) P Joy Oommen took special interest into the matter of illegal acquisition of 2780 acre land by BALCO and ordered for its regularisation. The government incurred revenue loss of Rs 140 crore. We had submitted a memorandum to Governor in this regard and demanded probe and prosecution against the duo under Prevention of Corruption Act on March 17, 2012. We waited for 90 days till June 17, 2012. Now, we will move to court and file criminal suit against the CM,” informed Patel.
He said party leader Bhupesh Baghel would file petition in court against the CM while he and Choubey would be intervenors.
He pointed that the PL to Ma Bamleshwari Minerals too was allotted on the basis of manipulated documents back in 2005-06.
“There was no industry in the region. However, the company instantly started illegal mining at large-scale in the jungles of Salhewara as soon as it obtained PL. When the Congress raised this issue in the Vidhan Sabha, the ruling party hastily revoked the PL,” Patel said.
“We will sue the CM in this case too. For this, we will soon seek permission from the Governor,” he said.
“If needed, former Congress MLA Uday Mudliyar will take this issue to the court and former MP Devvrat Singh and party legislator Mohammad Akbar will be the intervenors,” Patel informed.
‘Waive VAT on petro products’
The party also hit strongly at the CM on his tirade against Centre on rising inflation.
“The CM has crossed all boundaries while criticising Centre on price rise. If the state government wants to give relief to the public then it should immediately waive value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products,” said Patel and Choubey.
The duo also pointed that the government had even failed to check rising cement prices.
“Despite no hike in costs of raw materials used in cement production and labour rates being stagnant, the cement manufacturers are consistently increasing cement prices. The rate of cement per bag has touched Rs 295, much more than the cement prices in adjoining states. Ironically, the cement industries in state earn benefit of about Rs 500 crore annually,” they said.
They alleged that the CM did not make effective policy to check inflation and hence illegal stocking of daily use commodities had gone up.
‘CM sympathy towards tribals false’
The Congress further said that the CM was showing false sympathy towards the tribals. “First the police lathicharged on innocent tribals when they took out rally in the capital demanding constitutional right and the old tribal leaders were put behind the bars on false criminal charges. Now, the CM is taking rallies in tribal regions and showing them false sympathy,” said Patel and Choubey.
They also termed the government’s 32 percent reservation announcement for scheduled tribes as political gimmick. “The government adopted such procedures for the quota which were destined to be stayed by the court,” they said.
“At least 5000 tribal youths would have got jobs in different government departments if they really had got 32 percent reservation three years back,” they said.
They reminded the ruling BJP about its promises made to the tribals in its 2008 election manifesto.
“The BJP had promised to establish forest produce-based industries in tribal regions. The tribals were supposed to get shares in these industries. The ruling party had also promised to setup training centres to develop and encourage sportspersons and artist in tribal areas. Another promise was to patent forest medicines and establish their processing plants,” the duo said.
No comments:
Post a Comment