Reacting on the statement of Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh that the next election would be fought on development agenda, the Congress on Friday said that it would fight the election on the issues of development blocked due to the misrule of the BJP Government and the ‘corruption’ of the Raman Government.
State spokesperson of the party, Susheel Anand Shukla said that Chief Minister Raman Singh, who made self-praise during his speech at the planning commission meeting, was unaware of the figures on poverty released by the planning commission recently, in which Chhattisgarh was at the top with 39.93 per cent poverty, highest in the country. During the last one decade the poverty has been declined by 15.3 per cent in the country, but in the BJP-led Chhattisgarh the number of the poor has increased, he added.
He said that, at the formation of Chhattisgarh, the State annual budget was Rs 3,500 crore, which had increased to Rs 4,000 crore in 2003. One decade after the formation of the State the general budget had increased to Rs 50,000. During the one decade of BJP rule the budget of the State has registered 15 times increase. The UPA-2 Government, during these years, gave more than one lakh crore rupees’ assistance to Chhattisgarh, but the benefits of the schemes did not reach the poor, he alleged.
Shukla alleged that the central aid and the huge amount of State budget had been offered on the altar of corruption by the BJP Government. During the 10-year rule, the BJP Government has done only corruption. It has sold all the water, forest, land and minerals of the State. The Bhatgaon Coal bloc has been given out of way to the company of the friend of the former BJP president Nitin Gadkari. The State suffered a loss of Rs 25,000 crore in this scam, he alleged.
Similarly, he said, the BJP Government has gifted the Parsa coal mine bloc to Adani group, a close friend of BJP leader Narendra Modi, in which the State suffered a loss of Rs 1568 crore. By giving the contracts of construction of roads, power sub stations, costing billions of rupees to the company of Sancheti, a friend of Gadkari, the BJP Government has given illegal benefits to the company, he added. Shukla said that the BJP would have to give reply to all these issues to the people in the coming election. The people of the State have made up their mind to throw away the corrupt BJP Government and to bring change in the State, he added.