Attack on Congress workers in Chhattisgarh is political persecution: Rahul Gandhi

Declaring that “dictatorship has become a vocation” in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said people in Chhattisgarh will remember the attack on his party’s workers in Bilaspur as an act of “political persecution”.

Taking to Twitter a day after police beat up protesting Congress workers in the Chhattisgarh town, leaving several injured, the Congress president trained his guns on the BJP-led Raman Singh government in the state and also tagged a video of the incident.

“In Narendra Modi’s regime, dictatorship has become a vocation. The cowardly manner in which the fundamental rights of Congress workers in Bilaspur were attacked by the Raman Singh government will be remembered by the people there as political persecution,” he said on Twitter in Hindi.

At least seven Congress workers were injured on Tuesday when police beat them with sticks in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur city after they allegedly threw garbage inside a minister’s house. The opposition party claimed its workers were carrying out a peaceful protest against Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal but were brutally beaten up by police.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Neeraj Chandrakar claimed Congress workers threw garbage inside the minister’s house and also roughed up a policewoman and some male constables, following which a case was registered against them.

The protesters then went to the district Congress office and staged a sit-in, the police officer said.

When police tried to arrest them, Congress workers again got into a scuffle with police so “mild force” was used to arrest the workers against whom the case had been lodged, Chandrakar said.

At least 52 Congress workers were arrested and seven of them sustained injuries in the process

Disclaimer: RSS has been taken from their official website.

BJP planning to field MPs in Chhattisgarh Assembly elections?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is determined to make it four out of four in Chhattisgarh in the upcoming Assembly elections and if reports are to be believed, the ruling party could even field MPs in the state election. According to a report in Naidunia, the saffron party is considering candidature of five MPs for the upcoming polls and they include Ramesh Bais (Raipur), Saroj Pandey (Rajya Sabha), Lakhan Lal Sahu (Bilaspur), Kamalbhan Singh (Sarguja) and Abhishek Singh (Rajnandgaon). Citing sources, the report said Bais could be fielded from Raipur City Grameen while Pandey could get a ticket from Durg. Pandey, also the BJP’s national general secretary, has reportedly not declined to contest the Assembly elections. When asked whether she would contest from Durg MLA Arun Vora, Pandey said she has always stood by what her party has decided and there would be no exception in future either, the report added. The BJP is looking for a strong leader in Durg after the death of senior leader Hemchand Yadav in April and Pandey could be its find.

Similarly, the BJP may field Sahu from Mungeli, Kamalbhan from Ambikapur and Abhishek from Kawardha constituencies, the report added. Of these three, Mungeli and Kawardha have BJP MLAs while Ambikapur has a Congress representative. The BJP is cautious this year to replace its weaker MLAs and replace them with strong faces, even if they are MPs. The BJP is in power in the central Indian state, which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, since 2003.

The party has embarked on Mission 65 plus in Chhattisgarh this year, a figure which they are yet to touch in their decade-and-a-half rule in the state.

Chhattisgarh State must have fair liquor policy: High Court

The High Court of Chhattisgarh has directed the state government to frame a new liquor procurement policy within a month, ruling in favour of Diageo and Pernod Ricard, the country’s top two distillers, which had alleged unfair practices by the government.

Last year, the Chhattisgarh government had decided that liquor sales would only be allowed through government-owned corporations. Diageo and Pernod Ricard approached the high court, complaining that the government’s wholesale and retail units were trying to drive them out of the state by favouring other suppliers and restricting their orders to minimal.

In its order the court said the choice of the consumers has to prevail. “There should be a la carte system and consumer, who is master of his choice, should be allowed to purchase according to his wishes and all the brands should be made available in the shops across the counter,” said the order passed by Justice Sanjay K Agarwal on Friday.

The new policy should ensure fairness and equality in procurement within four weeks, it said.

Analysts said the judgement may prompt top spirits makers to take legal actions to deal with similar issues in other states. Chhattisgarh is a small market with less than 2% of the overall liquor sales in the country. But some other states, including Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi and Jharkhand, too allow liquor sales only through government-owned corporations.

The Chhattisgarh High Court order also said Diageo and Pernod Ricard are being discriminated against and the state has not been able to show that they have put in place a fair and transparent policy regarding the procurement of beverage alcohol.

This collector turned a stinking Chhattisgarh city into its cleanest small city

Self-help groups collected door-to-door waste and segregated them into 24 categories of organic and inorganic waste. A final round of micro segregation was done, after which the refined and cleaned waste was sold to scrap dealers.

Ritu Sain, a 2003-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, can’t forget the first sight that greeted her when she entered Ambikapur city, in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh, in February 2014.

“There was a big signpost welcoming people to the municipal corporation of Ambikapur, and bang opposite that was a huge open dumping yard. The stink was unbearable. I thought to myself, what kind of impression the city would create if this was the first thing a person saw after entering,” she said.

Sain had just taken charge as Ambikapur collector. Even before she reached her official residence, she knew what her first priority was going to be. “There was no looking back since that day. I was clear about what I wanted to do,” Sain, now Chhattisgarh’s additional resident commissioner in Delhi, said.

“It was a challenge. The city with a population of 1,45,000 had meagre funds and hardly any capacity to take up the cleaning task. I knew whatever I did would have to be participatory, viable and replicable,” Sain, who studied international relations from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.

Long brainstorming sessions with all stakeholders followed and, within two months, Sain was ready with the road map. Initially, the solid and liquid resource management model was started on a pilot basis in one ward.

Women from self-help groups (SHG) were engaged. A three-member team comprising SHG workers was formed. Each team was assigned 100 households, where they would have to go door to door collecting waste after segregating it at source.

A garbage clinic was opened in the ward, where the women again segregated the collected material into 24 categories of organic and inorganic waste. A third and final round of micro segregation was done, after which the refined and cleaned waste was sold to scrap dealers.

By May 2016, all 48 wards in the city were covered. The municipality also fixed a user charge for door-to-door collections. Currently, 447 women work from 7am to 5 pm daily at the 48 garbage segregation centres. All of them are provided safety gear such as jackets, aprons, gloves and masks. They also undergo regular health screening.

The result is there for all to see. The 16-acre open dumping yard has been converted into a sanitation awareness park. The 200 overflowing community dustbins have been replaced by just five.

“It’s a self-sustaining model. Each woman gets to earn Rs 5,000 per month from user fee and sale of recyclables. We have spent Rs 6 crore to put the entire infrastructure in place and have already earned Rs 2 crore. The money earned is being spent on the sanitation workers,” Sain said.

Ambikapur was declared the cleanest small city in the 2018 cleanliness survey by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry. “It’s very fulfilling to see that something we started has come so far and is sustaining itself,” Sain said.

No Anti-Incumbency In Chhattisgarh, May Change 1/4th Tickets: BJP Minister

Up to one-fourth election tickets can be changed by the BJP for the upcoming Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, senior party leader and cabinet minister Brijmohan Agrawal said today, asserting that there is no anti-incumbency against the Raman Singh-led government in the state.

Brushing aside rumours of major differences between him and the chief minister, Mr Agrawal said there may be some differences on certain issues but there are certainly no hard feelings.

“There is no infighting in the party. I have very cordial relations with the chief minister. There are no hard feelings between us, may be our approach is different on some issues,” Mr Agrawal told .

Talking about anti-incumbency, he said there maybe discontent against some individuals and that is why political parties get surveys done ahead of the elections to decide on tickets.

“Twenty-five per cent tickets are likely to be changed in the BJP. I am sure when tickets are changed then people will again be with the BJP. People may be angry with some individuals for different personal reasons but they are not anti-BJP,” Mr Agrawal said.

Elections for 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly are due this year end.

He made light of the recent tie-up between Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh and Mayawati’s BSP, saying it would not hurt the BJP, which has its voters intact, but would be detrimental to the Congress.

“If the BSP and Ajit Jogi fight elections together, then it is very beneficial for the BJP. The party has got its own support base and voters. Our vote bank is intact. People from all castes and creed are with the BJP due to different development works done by us. We will surely get more votes this time too and form the government,” Mr Agrawal said.

He claimed that Mr Jogi was the B team of the Congress, contrary to his perceived closeness with Raman Singh.

“He (Ajit Jogi) is the B team of the Congress. Congress says this to get rid of its own problem,” the senior minister in the state said.

Citing the dual party system in Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, he said the main fight, if at all that happens, in the Assembly polls will only be between the BJP and the Congress.

“(Ajit) Jogi will only divide some votes. But he won’t be able to take away any result-oriented votes,” said Mr Agrawal, who holds the charge of water resources department, agriculture and biotechnology, animal husbandry and fisheries among others.

He said elections in the state will be fought in the name of Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“It is known to everyone now that elections will be fought in the name of Raman Singh and the prime minister. But what will happen in the time to come, that (who will be chief minister) will be decided by the party. And whatever party decides, everyone will have agree to it,” Mr Agrawal said.

He, however, said the BJP is a disciplined party and everyone gets what they deserve. “I have never asked anything from the party. It decides everything after analysing eligibility of individuals,” he said.

Mr Agrawal said the BJP will form its government for the fourth consecutive term in the state.

Live: PM Modi To Launch Several Projects In Odisha, Chhattisgarh Today

Modi in Chhattisgarh Live Updates: PM Modi reiterates promise of housing for all by 2022.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a series of developmental projects including an airport in Jharsuguda of Odisha during his visit to the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a series of development projects including an airport in Jharsuguda of Odisha during his visit to the state. Inaugurating a new airport at Jharsuguda, he said that it will attract investors to the mineral-rich area and will act as a lifeline in the western region of the state. The PM also laid the foundation stone for a Rs 13,000 crore-project to revive the Talcher fertiliser plant. He exuded confidence that the plant will begin production in the stipulated 36 months. The fertiliser plant will for the first time see coal being converted into gas for use as feedstock and for producing neem-coated urea.

He also inaugurated the Garjanbahal open cast mine of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), which has coal block reserves of 230 million tonne with an annual production capacity of 13 million tonne. It will generate direct employment opportunity for 894 people and indirect job opportunities for 5,000.The PM also launched the 53.1-km long Jharsuguda-Serdega railway line constructed by the MCL. Modi also dedicated to the nation Dulanga Coal Mining Project of NTPC in Sundargarh district. This is the second mine of the state-run company to be operational and its first in Odisha.

From here, the PM left for neighbouring poll-bound Chhattisgarh where he laid the foundation stone for several development projects. Addressing a public meeting in Janjgir-Champa, he virtually kicked off the election campaign for the BJP saying “people of the state are mature enough to elect a stable government”. He said that the only objective of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh were the welfare of the poor and the common people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Odisha and poll-bound Chhattisgarh today. He will launch several projects in both states, his office has said.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the commencement of work for the revival of Talcher fertilizer plant in Odisha. This is the first plant in India to have a coal gasification based fertilizer unit. In addition to fertilizer, the plant will produce natural gas, which will contribute to the country’s energy requirements, the statement said.

PM Modi will then travel to Jharsuguda to inaugurate an airport there. It will bring western Odisha on the aviation map of India, and facilitate regional air connectivity through the UDAN scheme, it said.

The prime minister will dedicate the Garjanbahal coal mines, and the Jharsuguda-Barapali-Sardega rail link to the nation. He will also unveil a plaque to mark the commencement of coal production and transportation from Dulanga coal mines.

He will then arrive in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa district at around 3:20 pm, where he will visit an exhibition on traditional handloom and agriculture. He will lay the foundation stone for national highway projects and the Pendra-Anuppur third railway line.

The prime minister will also address a Kisan Sammelan between 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm.

“The PM will lay foundation stone for the Rs. 1697.79 crore Bilaspur-Anuppur Third Rail Track Project in Bilaspur-Anuppur section of South East Central Railway. The 152 km rail route runs for 119.55 km in Chhattisgarh and 32.45 km in Madhya Pradesh,” an official said.

This track will not only ease passenger services but also augment coal transportation of SECL for its mines in Raigarh and Mand areas, the official added.

Chief Minister Raman Singh, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai will be present on the occasion.

The chief minister extended his gratitude to the prime minister for the visit and said it was his sixth visit to the state in four years, a measure of the priority he gave to development of the state.

The prime minister will depart from Janjgir-Champa by helicopter at 4:50 pm and land at Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur at 5:40 pm. He will then proceed to New Delhi at 5:45 pm, the official informed.

Chhattisgarh elections: The interesting case of Kanker district

The central Indian state of Raipur will go to the Assembly elections later this state. The state, which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, has been under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003. Led by Chief Minister Raman Singh, the saffron party is trying hard to win its fourth consecutive term and the top leadership is also sparing no effort to make it happen.

An interesting story of Chhattisgarh elections is that of Kanker, the southern district which is located near the Bastar region. Rich in natural resources, Kanker district has three Assembly constituencies and all of them are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). After delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in Kanker district increased from two to three with Antagarh becoming the third. Earlier, the BJP had the two seats under their belt but in 2013, the Congress won two of the three seats with only Antagarh going to the ruling party.

However, Kanker is often in the news for the 2014 by-election in Antagarh where the Congress candidate Manturam Pawar withdrew in the last minute to give the BJP victory. In 2014, the Antagarh Assembly seat fell vacant after BJP’s Vikram Usendi won from Kanker Lok Sabha seat and there was a need for a by-election. The BJP fielded Bhojraj Nag and he won by a margin of over 53,000 votes. NOTA (None of The Above) finished second with 13,556 votes which was more than Ambedkarite Party of India’s Roopdhar Pando (12,285).

Congress candidate in by-election withdrew in the last moment :

The withdrawal of Pawar had stunned his own partymen and he was expelled from the party. The Congress had alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to make Pawar give up his candidature. There were also reports that spoke about telephonic conversations purportedly between several influential people and also Pawar and they led to continued blame games between the political opponents.

BJP & Congress seats and vote shares in Kanker district constituencies

While the BJP had both Assembly seats in Kanker before delimitation, it won all three seats in the 2008 elections after Antagarh came into existence. In these seats, the BJP won 47 per cent of the vote-share in the district in 2003; 43 per cent in 2008 and 41 per cent in the 2013 Assembly elections.

The Congress, on the other hand, could win 33 per cent of vote share in Kanker district in 2003 though it had no seats. In 2008, its vote share decreased to 31 per cent while it continued to be seat-less. In 2013, as the Congress got two seats in Kanker, its vote share jumped to 45 per cent which is even better than the BJP’s show in 2008 when it won all three seats in the district.

Chhattisgarh election: Mayawati announces alliance with Ajit Jogi’s party

In a major blow to Congress-led Grand Alliance for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati on Thursday decided to contest the upcoming assembly polls in alliance with Janta Congress Chhattisgarh.

In a press conference, Mayawati said, “BSP will fight on 35 seats and Janta Congress Chhattisgarh will contest on 55 seats.”

Mayawati also said that if we will be able to win than Ajit Jogi will be Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.

Jogi, the first Chief Minister of Chattisgarh had formed Janta Congress Chhattisgarh party after being expelled from the Congress in 2016.

While addressing the media Jogi said, “BJP has been in power in Chhattisgarh for past 15 years and it has misused power. Mayawati and my party will together definitely stop the BJP.”

A few days back on September 16 Mayawati commenting on the alliance with other political parties for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls Mayawati had said, “We will agree to alliance anywhere and in any election only when we get a respectable share of seats, otherwise BSP will contest alone.”

There were speculations that BSP will join Congress-led Grand Alliance for the upcoming 2019 elections to stop the ‘Modi wave’.