Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Cabinet colleagues are in a fix as how to take up the crucial issue of compensation to the hailstorm affected farmers of Madhya Pradesh with Narendra Modi Government at the Centre. Earlier, when the UPA was in power, Chouhan used to make a lot of noise and cry foul to say Madhya Pradesh was getting step-motherly treatment from the Centre. In fact, he seldom missed a minute to raise the issue or travel to New Delhi seeking adequate compensation for the farmers. Agriculture experts believe similar conditions exist now in the manner in which the crops of farmers were destroyed by hailstorm in the past.
Since there is BJP government in Centre too, the Chief Minister is perturbed as how to seek additional funds in the present situation. In the past two days, the Members of Parliament have met Union Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking compensation for the hail-affected farmers in the State.
Besides, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is completely silent over the situation. On Wednesday, he toured hail-hit villages in Neemuch, Mandsaur, Rajgarh, Ujjain and Shajapur districts. As per schedule, on Thursday, he would also visit more villages in Gwalior, Morena, Shivpuri and Datia districts.
State BJP leaders, bureaucrats and political observers are intrigued as why Chouhan is not taking up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A section of the BJP privately says following MPPEB scam, Chouhan finds himself rather vulnerable and unwilling to make noises in issues where Modi government is involved.
Given the Centre's reluctance to part with money, Chouhan is reportedly unsure of getting immediate and positive response. His political assessment is that in the event of Centre's lukewarm response, his political stature in the State would take a further nosedive. Official sources claim that almost Rs 1000 crore in different departmental heads that the State Government used to get during UPA Government's tenure in Centre, has been stopped in past one year. They claim that the situation was entirely different before the BJP came to power in Centre. Following this, the departments are facing problem of acute shortage of funds and in almost all the departments, ban has been imposed on the payments, citing the reason of year-end.