The Opposition Congress on Friday accused the Raman Singh-led BJP Government of manipulating figures and running away from the realities.
State Congress spokespersons Sushil Anand Shukla asked if the financial management of the Government was so good then what prompted it to mortgage Rs 800 crore worth bond with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before the election. He said the Chief Minister himself had been holding the portfolio of finance and he knew better about the fiscal health of the State.
Rejecting the claim made by the Government on the basis of a RBI report, that Chhattisgarh had topped the list of States in fiscal management, Shukla cited a report of the same bank to justify his point. He said a report by the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan four months ago had described the State of Chhattisgarh was one of the country’s Bimaru or sick States. According to Raghuram Rajan committee report on rural development, only 18 per cent of the people in State’s rural area did have necessary facilities including drinking water, toilets, and electricity.
However, the statistics released by the Ministry of Rural Development showed that the percentage of people listed under below poverty line category was 65 per cent, he said. It also said the Government had been making false claim on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act implementation, he said.
Although the Government had been claiming that it had been providing 150 days of employments to each rural poor under the scheme, the Ministry had said the State had been able to provide only 40-50 days of jobs to registered labourer, he said.