BJP takes on 'Gaurav Diwas' celebration by Chhattisgarh govt

RAIPUR: The opposition BJP has questioned the basis of the Gaurav Diwas celebration as the Bhupesh Baghel government completes four years in office on December 17.
"Chhattisgarh used to be recognized as a developing state during BJP rule, but the state has now earned a bad name in the last four years following the CD scam and now continuous action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).Officials from the chief minister’s secretariat are under the ED scanner while some of them are already jailed," said BJP national vice president and former chief minister Raman Singh in a press conference at the party office on Friday.
He said it looks like there is no relief from ED in the coming days. For the first time, the Income Tax Department and ED have carried out such a large-scale action against the senior bureaucrats.
The chief minister should have resigned from his post after his deputy secretary was arrested said Singh. He also said that the era of 2000-2003 has returned under the Congress rule while referring to the "political murder" of Bilaspur in which a Congress district general secretary was killed two days back, however, the Congress is trying to downplay the case by describing the victim as a history-sheeter.
The former chief minister, accompanied by former assembly speaker Dharamlal Kaushik and former minister Punnulal Mohle, alleged that a transfer-posing industry is being operated on a large scale and IAS to patwari is being "auctioned" like the Indian Premier League.
Despite taking Rs 55,000 crore loan, no work is being seen on the ground level, but this Congress government is surprisingly claiming that it has fulfilled 35 promises out of the 36 announced in its poll manifesto.
Citing NCRB data, Singh said that Chhattisgarh is sixth in illicit liquor trading, fifth in dacoity, fourth in extortion, third in murder and second in illegal suicide cases. Unemployment allowance of Rs 2500, promised in the manifesto for the educated unemployed youths, is yet to be fulfilled, women have been cheated after being promised to ban on liquor, and lakhs of contractual employees of the state feel cheated as they were promised their regularization and they are now taking their battle to the streets. The state government must introspect and read its manifesto as well as the NCRB report before celebrating the ‘Gaurav Diwas’, concluded Singh.
Targeting the cow dung schemes of the state government, Kaushik said that the ‘Gobar Ghotala’ of Chhattisgarh will be bigger than the fodder scam of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav. He also cornered the state government over-irrigation, electricity, roads and other basic issues which, according to him, are in a poor state.
Meanwhile, Congress hit back at the former chief minister Raman Singh who, according to the ruling party, is saying this out of frustration. “The opposition in the state has gone deeper into a hole in the last four years, said Congress communication department head Sushil Anand Shukla while countering the former chief minister’s statement.