Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and termed his allegations levelled against his Government at an election rally at Balod as a "pack of lies."
“The Chhattisgarh Government did not scrap the Aayushman Yojana as claimed by the PM,” Baghel said while addressing a Press conference convened to offer reply to the charges made by Modi at the rally earlier in the day.
Modi in his speech attacked Baghel-led Chhattisgarh government and also the Congress party saying they had betrayed the people mainly the farmers.
According to Baghel, after the Congress government came to power in Chhattisgarh, medical claims of 2.45 lakh patients made through 1270 hospitals were approved and against them Rs 185.50 crore was released.
"Ayushman Yojana has not been scrapped in Chhattisgarh. Our Government is working on a better universal health care model," he claimed.
On Modi's claim that the Congress Government was not concerned over farmers in Chhattisgarh, the CM said "Will the Prime Minister tell people that despite the demand of the previous state government, his government (Centre) had refused to provide money to pay bonus (on paddy price) to farmers."
The Congress Government waived off Rs 11,000 crore loans of 20 lakh farmers in Chhattisgarh, he added.
Responding to Tendupatta issue, the CM said our government had increased the minimum support price of per sack of Tendu leaves from Rs 2,500 per to Rs 4,000.
Baghel also took a dig at BJP national vice-president and former Chief Minister Raman Singh. "I don't know if someone has told him (PM Modi) about Raman Singh's son-in-law Dr Punit Gupta who is on the run and police has issued look out circular for his arrest," the CM said.
Countering the claims that Congress government had failed to curb Naxal violence, the CM said, "During BJP's rule in Chhattisgarh and at the Centre, Naxal incidents had gone up. We wanted a SIT probe in Jheeram Ghati massacre but the then government never gave a nod," he added.