Girish Sharma n Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's tour in hail-hit villages of Madhya Pradesh has put the whole administration on its toes. Other activities have almost stopped in the State. Bureaucrats in Bhopal and in the districts admire Chouhan's single-minded devotion and focus to deal with the farmers' crisis that has a potential of turning into a catastrophe.
It has been learnt that the State government is completely concentrating on the affected farmers, so that the attack of the Opposition Congress regarding MPPEB exam scam could be overcome. In the past too, the Chief Minister has toured the farmers affected by inclement weather, whether it was hail stone or flood situation. However, disbursement of compensation to all the affected farmers has always been a problem in the State.
Soon after the natural calamity, Chouhan asked the officials to immediately launch the survey process, but it always got delayed and the compensation disbursement was not done judiciously. There are still affected farmers in the State who have not received the compensation even after couple of years have passed after facing the calamity.
Seeing this act of the Chief Minister politically, the Congress feels that this is a mere exercise to gain publicity in the name of visiting affected farmers. State Congress chief spokesman KK Mishra said that Wednesday's incident in Shajapur district, where a farmer, Parvatlal, had died at the stage of the Chief Minister's programme, was evident as how serious he is. Ironically, after a few minutes, the Chief Minister addressed the gathering and did not speak anything about the deceased farmer.
He alleged that in the cover of visiting affected villages, Chouhan is testing his publicity in the rural parts of the State. "This might be an exercise to give a message to the party high command in Delhi, where the Congress leaders have filed a complaint against him in connection with the MPPEB exam scam," he added.