Chief Minister Raman Singh faces no-confidence motion in Chhattisgarh

The main opposition party, Congress on Friday tabled a no-confidence motion against Raman Singh and his council of ministers in Chhattisgarh in its last ditch effort to grill the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government ahead of state polls.

This is the second no-confidence motion against the Raman Singh government in a year as the state gears up to go to the polls in next couple of months. The last motion that was brought during the winter session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly was defeated by voice votes after 19 hours lengthy debate that continued through-out the night.

The Congress tabled a 15 points charge-sheet as part of the motion alleging that the ruling BJP government had failed on all fronts and ditched farmers and youths besides indulging in scams. “The government has betrayed the people and corruption is rampant in the state,” Dahanendra Sahu, former minister and senior Congress legislator alleged while initiating the debate.

While budget size of the state has increased from Rs 70 billion to Rs 900 billion, poor section of the society were still living in deprivation, he said. The problem of Left Wing Extremism has taken alarming proportion, the Congress legislator said.

The opposition members said government cheated farmers by not fulfilling its poll promise of giving bonus during last five years and increasing minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2100.

Giving befitting reply, the members of ruling party charged that there was no base in the no-confidence motion. “Has the government lost the trust because it was providing rice to 5.5 million people for Rs 1 per kilogram,” revenue minister Prem Prakash Pandey said.

Senior minister Brijmohan Agrawal said the opposition members did not want development in the state. “It is unfortunate that despite the state has seen a new phase of development works and launches a series of welfare schemes, the opposition members are expressing no-confidence in the government,” he said, adding that the opposition should take back the motion.

The debate on the motion was in progress till the filing of this report and was likely to continue till late night.