Congress alleges Naxal link with Chhattisgarh minister

The main opposition party in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, the Congress, today termed a book written by a senior state minister on drought condition as Naxal literature.

Leader of the Opposition Ravindra Choube charged that the book written by state's agriculture minister Chandrashekhar Sahu titled Akaal avam Chhattisgarh: Yathaarth Aur Sambhavna" had an article written by Prafulla Jha, who was arrested by police in 2008 on charges of working for the rebels.

The Congress members sought a debate through an adjournment motion on the alleged Naxal links of state's Agriculture minister. "The issue is serious as the minister deleted the name of Jha when the book was re-printed in 2008," Choube said.

Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik disallowed the motion stating that the issue was not worth of adjournment motion. The members could take up the discussion when the House would discuss on the home department's demands, Kaushik added.

Congress legislators said the minister should clarify how he knew Prafulla Jha and how many times he had met him. The minister had violated the Chhattisgarh public security Act and hence the House had rights to know minister's links with the Jha, former home minister and senior Congress legislator Nandkumar Patel said.

State's Parliamentary affairs minister Brijmohan Agrawal clarified that Jha was a free-lance journalist and prior to that he had worked with many organisations and had contacts with many persons.