T.S. Singh DeoShubhomoy SikdarRaipur
In a sign of trouble for the ruling Congress and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh, senior leader T.S. Singh Deo on Saturday resigned as the State’s Panchayati Raj Minister.
Leadership tussle
Launching a scathing attack on his own government, Mr. Singh Deo alleged it had failed to construct 8,00,000 houses meant for the rural poor under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Mr. Singh Deo continues to hold his other portfolios, including the key Health Ministry, for now, but the latest development is seen as a critical step in the ongoing leadership tussle between him and Mr. Baghel.
The Sarguja royal family member, who has had several showdowns with the Chief Minister in the government’s over three-year-old rule, documented serious disagreements with his own government in his four-page resignation letter.
He alleged that the government had undermined his position as a Minister against the set protocol in an unfair manner and that the party had gone back on the promises in its election manifesto that propelled it to power in the 2018 Assembly elections.
“I am finding myself unable to fulfil all the goals of the department with full spirit,” he said in the letter.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Singh Deo highlighted that during the tenure of the present government, not a single house could be built for the homeless people and the progress of the PMAY scheme remained stagnant.
Three days ago, Union Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh, who was on a visit to Chhattisgarh till Saturday, had also alleged that the State government had failed to provide matching grants for house construction under the scheme.
In the four-page letter, Mr. Singh Deo cited various reasons stating that he was unable to fulfil the targets of the department as per the vision of the Jan Ghoshna Patra (poll manifesto), given the “current scenario”.
These, he claimed, included the fact that the draft of rules under the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act prepared by his department and sent to a committee was changed without taking him into confidence. However, earlier this month, Mr. Singh Deo had hailed the draft through a series of tweets.
Under the Mukhyamantri Samagra Gramin Vikas Yojna, a committee of secretaries, headed by the Chief Secretary, was constituted against the standard protocol for granting final approval to works.
The discretion to approve works of any department lies with the Minister concerned, he added.
Strike by workers
Mr. Singh Deo also questioned the government’s role in a recent strike by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers.
“As a part of a conspiracy, employment assistants under the MGNREGA were made to stage a strike, in which the role of Assistant Project Officers (Contract) was clearly visible. A committee was constituted by you (Bhupesh Baghel) to fulfil the demands of the protesting MGNREGA employees, even after this the strike was not called off, due to which, wage payment of about 1,250 crore was affected,” the letter added.
The two Congress heavyweights have been locked in a cold war over a purported power-sharing agreement under which they were to serve as Chief Minister for two-and-a-half years each.
The disagreements have often been expressed through public statements, the most recent being the controversy over coal mining in the Hasdeo forests in the Sarguja region from where Mr. Baghel hails.
Matters had reached a flashpoint last September when Congress MLA from Ramanujganj, Brihaspat Singh alleged that Mr. Singh Deo wanted to kill him.
Meanwhile, the Congress has called a meeting of its legislature party on Sunday. The meeting will be held at the Chief Minister's official residence at 7 p.m., a party leader said on Saturday night
https://epaper.thehindu.com/Home/MShareArticle?OrgId=GBSA1SBDV.1&imageview=0
No comments:
Post a Comment