The opposition Congress today brought a 15-pointer “charge sheet” as a part of the no-confidence motion that was moved in the Chhattisgarh Assembly against the Raman Singh government.
The debate on the no-confidence motion is underway in the House in what is the last day of the five-day monsoon session of the state Assembly.
The Congress legislators, including Dhanendra Sahu, Satyanarayan Sharma and Kawasi Lakhma, accused the state government of failing on all fronts, ditching farmers and the youth as well as committing scams.
“The 15 years of BJP rule shows no vision for the development of the state. Farmers are committing suicide, youth don’t have jobs, labourers are getting cheated and women are feeling insecure,” Dhanendra Sahu said.
Sahu added that the ruling BJP had lost the confidence of the people as several segments of society, including panchayat teachers, nurses and families of police personnel, were agitating on the streets against the government.
The Budget of the state had increased from Rs 7,000 crore in 2003 (when the BJP first came to power) to around Rs 90,000 crore now but the poor were still living a life of deprivation, he alleged.
He added that the menace of Left Wing Extremism had increased manifold.
Congress leaders said that the state government had cheated farmers by not fulfilling its poll promises of giving bonus during the last five years and hiking Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2,100.
They added that farmers were committing suicide due to the pressure of repaying loans and their lands were being snatched.
Countering the charges, Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey, Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal, MLA Devjibhai Patel and other ruling party legislators termed the Congress no-confidence motion as “weak”.
Agriculture Minister Agrawal said that the state government had already answered the Congress’ allegations by various means including call attention and adjournment motions.
He said that the BJP had been given a mandate to rule three times by the people due to its performance and exuded confidence that it would win another term in the Assembly poll slated for later this year.
Revenue Minister Pandey said that the opposition party was miffed as the state government was providing rice at Rs 1 per kilogram to 56 lakh poor families and had distributed Rs 1.25 lakh crore as grants to farmers to better their living conditions.
He added that the state government had been providing agriculture loans to farmers at zero per cent interest, free LPG connections to poor families and bonus to tendu leaf collectors.
Pandey said the Chhattisgarh government had set up educational institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Management and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the state.
This is the third no-confidence motion brought against the Raman Singh government, the last of which was during the winter session of the Assembly in 2017.
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