Thursday, September 6, 2012

Coal scam: Cong targets CM, stages massive protest


Raipur, September 04, 2012

Congress on Tuesday staged massive protest movement against ruling party and attempted to gherao Chief Minister Raman Singh’s residence alleging that he had benefited Sancheti brothers by selecting their company SMS Infrastructure Limited for commercial mining of Bhatgaon-II and Bhatgaon-II extension coal blocks and eventually putting government exchequer at loss by over Rs 5000 crore.

As scheduled, the party took out rallies from 15 different locations. The police were well prepared and arrested thousands of protestors while they tried to go past barricades to gherao CM house.

The AICC general secretary state Congress incharge BK Hariprasada, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industry Charandas Mahant, PCC president Nandkumar Patel, CLP leader Ravindra Choubey and veteran party leader Vidyacharan Shukla exhorted the protestors by visiting every location.

Hariprasada said the state government’s corruption had broken all records. “The Raman Singh-government is most corrupt in the country. The coal scam has exposed the double-faced BJP,” he added.

Patel said the people of Chhattisgarh had decided to dethrone the BJP government. “The CM has send mota maal (mega buck) to BJP’s national president Nitin Gadkari by selling Bhatgaon-II and Bhatgaon-II extension coal blocks to Sancheti brothers. The CM should stem down taking moral responsibility on coal scam,” he added.

Mahant said the BJP government had sold water, forest, lands and mineral resources of the state. “If assessed on current rates, the state exchequer has incurred loss of over Rs 25000 crore by giving Bhatgaon-II and Bhatgaon-II extension coal blocks to SMS Infrastructure Limited,” he said.

Choubey said the flooding Congress workers on streets indicate that Raman Singh-government’s countdown has begun. “The days of this corrupt government are numbered,” he added.

Shukla said it is high time to wage decisive war against the BJP government. “The state will continue incurring loss if the BJP will remain in power,” he said.

The prominent protestors arrested from Gass Memorial Ground were – Dhanendra Sahu, Pankaj Sharma, Arun Vora, Amit Pandey, Ruchi Dubey, Subhash Sharma, Kiranmayi Nayak, Inderchand Dhariwal, Kanhaiyya Agrawal, Subhash Dhuppad, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Mahendra Chhabda, Jaswant Cladius, Renu Jogi, Padma Manhar, Asha Joseph, Ambika Markam, Aijaz Dhebar, Bhojkumari Yadu, Ashok Raj Ahuja, Bhupesh Baghel, Swaroopchand Jain, Mamta Rai, etc.

The prominent protestors arrested from Jail road were – Satyanarayan Sharma, Omprakash Dewangan, Vidhan Mishra, Chandrashekhar Yadav, Chhaya Verma, Kuldeep Juneja, Rajendra Tiwari, Arun Agrawal, Sushil Anand Shukla, Sanjay Pathak, Daulat Rohra, Ghanshyam Raju Tiwari, etc.

The prominent protestors arrested from BTI ground were – Amitesh Shukla, Amir Ali Farishta, Devvrat Singh, Tarun Chaterjee, Vinod Tiwari, Shiv Daharia, Deepak Mishra, Chandrawati Sahu, etc.

The prominent protestors arrested from Jaistambh chowk were – Dr Premsai Singh Tekam, Abdul Hameed Hayat, Ayesha Siddiqui, Shiv Singh Thakur, Gopal Thawait, Vimal Gupta, etc.


Jogi supporters display power

Tension gripped Katora Talab area when police lathicharged on large number of protestors near senior Congress legislator Ajit Jogi’s bungalow. The lathicharge started when the protestors, who belonged to Jogi camp, became aggressive with arrival of their senior party leaders including Hariprasada and tried to break the barricades.

In reply to police canecharge, the activists too started pelting stones on them. Hariprasada and other leaders could not reach stage as the police-protestors clash prolonged which even created panic in the area and shopkeepers instantly downed the shutters of their shops.

The Jogi supporters evidently tried to display power to the organisation through their aggression. However, Choubey defended the activists by saying that they were protesting peacefully but the police suddenly turned violent and canecharged them.

The police arrested about 6000 Jogi supporters at Katora Talab. The prominent protestors who got arrested were – Amit Jogi, Yogesh Tiwari, Uttam Vasudev, Vinod Tiwari, Sanjeev Shukla, Subodh Haritwal, Vipin Mishra, Pradeep Sahu, etc.


Over 31000 arrested, claims Congress

The Congress claimed that about 31297 protestors were arrested while they were proceeding to gherao CM house. The chief party spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi informed that about 6000 protestors were arrested at Katora Talab. The figures of arrest in other locations were – Purani Basti – 1500, Sadar Bazar – 1000, Kalibadi – 1200, Telebandha – 750, Shankar Nagar – 1500, Birgaon – 2169, Pachpedi Naka – 3500, Azad chowk – 876, Devendra Nagar chowk – 2292, Jaistambh chowk – 1300, Rajiv Gandhi chowk – 4200, OCM chowk – 1550, Banjari Mata chowk – 450, Telebandha & Shankar Nagar chowk – 1350 and BTI ground – 1660.

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