Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel on Thursday backed UPA Government’s ordinance on Food Security while stating that the move was an outcome of the Opposition’s stubborn attitude on passage of the bill in the parliament.
Notably, it was the NCP which had earlier opposed the proposed Food Security bill but after the issuance of the Ordinance , the party took a ‘U’ turn while saying that it was in favour of the move.
On his day-long visit to Raipur on Thursday, Patel launched a scathing attack on the NDA-led Opposition while stating : ‘We were continuously trying to discuss the bill in Parliament with the Opposition for past several months. But the Opposition do not want implementation of any public welfare scheme by Union Government.
‘Due to this reason when Parliament could not function and the Opposition had already expressed its stubborn attitude before the coming monsoon session of the parliament, it was natural that we have to take the ordinance route for extending food security to people,” he said. The Minister further stated that the bill would be ultimately presented in Parliament and then ‘we would see whether the Opposition was with the public or not. ‘
On the issue of former NCP legislator Nobel Verma from Chandrapur joining the Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress party, Patel said “NCP would be benefited by his move because such persons who do not support NCP have no place in the party.
He (Nobel Verma) was not active for the welfare of party and if such person is going with the Congress then it is good for them (Congress),” quipped Patel. To a query about the possibility of a Third Front in Chhattisagrh, the NCP leader said we are not thinking for third front. “Frankly there are no big players in Chhattisgarh with whom we could make alliance that would benefit us. We want to participate in maximum number of seats in the coming Assembly polls. May be we could contest on all 90 seats,” asserted Patel.
He was of view that until NCP contests elections on all seats the party could not present itself as a good option for BJP and Congress. “Today people of Chhattisgarh have seen both the parties (BJP and Congress) and they are looking for a third one and NCP is ready to shoulder the opportunity,” asserted the NCP leader.
Commenting over the current industrial scenario in Chhattisgarh, Patel said that Chhattisgarh has mostly traditional industries based on minerals like iron, coal, aluminium etc. “If the State Government claims that they have brought new dynamism in the industry of the State, then I think it is not correct. I have figures of a database of all industries in the country and my data does not reflect that Chhattisgarh has done anything spectacular in the recent past.”
Over the Darba massacre , Patel said that Naxalism is a national issue and we should seriously think it over and above politics.