Team News Riveting
Raipur, July 20
Chhattisgarh Forest Minister Kedar Kashyap made a scathing attack on former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and the Congress Party over reported scams during its’ regime in the state.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP district office ‘Ekatm Parisar’, Kashyap charged that Bhupesh Baghel had been constantly making baseless allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party government. “The reality was that the Congress party and Bhupesh preach something and do exactly opposite,” he said, adding that their double standard had been exposed before the public.
Kashyap said: “Bhupesh’s government had turned Chhattisgarh into a grazing ground of 10 Janpad in the last 5 years. Be it the liquor scam, coal scam, rice scam, coal scam, Gauthan scam or PSC scam, the way they misused the resources of the state, looted the state; consequently, more than half of their people had to go to the jail.”
Taking a dig, the Minister said that the Congress Party and Bhupesh Baghel had raised questions about coal block allocation and tree felling. Bhupesh Baghel had himself said in his statement that there would be no coal allocation and people of Chhattisgarh should stop running air-conditioner and turn off electricity. “On the basis of the statement, had the AC of Rajiv Bhawan (Congress headquarters at Chhattisgarh) closed and power cut? You should also answer this,” Kashyap quizzed.
Referring to the coal allocation made for personal interest while Bhupesh Baghel was the Chief Minister, he said that Bhupesh Baghel had allotted the coal block of Chhattisgarh to Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan. Earlier, when Manmohan Singh, Congress party’s UPA government was in power, everyone knows that his own leaders had made the way easy for allocating call blocks. In 2010, when UPA government was in power at the centre, the coal ministry and the environment and forest ministry had declared Hasdeo Aranya as a no-zone area, on that too the erstwhile environment minister Jairam Ramesh declared the entire area as a core area. There is a complete leaflet of this as well, Kashyap added.
The arrogance with which Jairam Ramesh declared the area while in power is the real proof. Today the same people talk big about the forest. Kashyap said that Congress people talk big but this is their real face regarding the forest.
On 23 June 2011, the Congress government in power at the centre gave a proposal to Tara Prasad to open the call block. When Congress government was in power in Rajasthan, even then Adani was made the operator of two big mines Gare Palma Sector-2 and KK Extension Plant in Rajasthan. When Bhupesh Baghel was the Chief Minister, on 16 October 2019, the state government sent a recommendation for environmental approval. “I will make his recommendation available to him with dates,” Kashyap said. The Open Cast Gare Palma Sector-2 Mat Agreement of 31 March 2021 is also in front of everyone, he added.
In the same sequence, the recommendation of Forest Approval Stage 1 and Stage Two Approval of Forest on 23 January 2023 by the Congress government while Bhupesh Baghel was the Chief Minister on 19 April 2022 is also clear. Kashyap further said that the involvement of the then Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel in the approval of the coalfield was published in all the newspapers, it is in front of everyone. Congress has worked to throw the state and the country into trouble to protect its people. On one hand, Congress allots coal mines, on the other hand, it approves them against the rules and when it is in the opposition, then to fulfil its interests, it proposes an economic blockade in the state today which is against the interests of the people of Chhattisgarh and will harm the economy of the state besides trade and employment.
The Minister charged that they want the entire system to come to a standstill due to the economic blockade and a situation of anarchy and violence to arise. Will Bhupesh Baghel apologize for all the decisions taken by the Congress when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister? Will Bhupesh Baghel declare that he will not use electricity and AC and that Congress leaders will stop the power supply to their homes. The way the Congress party is trying to fool the people of the state and the state to save itself, they should clarify that their deception has become clear to the people.
Kashyap challenged the claims of Bhupesh Baghel and said that while he was the Chief Minister, Rajasthan Minister V D Kalla wrote a letter to him. “We have many of his letters, the eight letters written by the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot within a week are also available,” Kashyap said. How, under the pressure of 10 Janpad and to gain political mileage, he is blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party. The people of Chhattisgarh and the entire country have seen how he do the politics of allegations.
That is why the people have removed him within 5 years and made the simple and easy-going Vishnu deo Sai the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, he added.
