In a sign of trouble for the ruling Congress and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh, senior leader T.S. Singh Deo on July 16 quit as the State's Panchayati Raj Minister.
Launching a scathing attack on his own government, Mr. Singh Deo alleged that it had failed to construct 8,00,000 houses meant for rural poor under the Centre's flagship Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY).
Mr. Singh Deo continues to hold his other portfolios, including the key health ministry, for now, but the latest development is seen as a crucial move in the ongoing leadership tussle between him and Mr. Baghel.
The Sarguja royal family scion, who has had several showdowns with the Chief Minister in the past three years, documented serious disagreements with his own government in his resignation letter. He claimed the government had “undermined his position as a minister against the set protocol” in an unfair manner and that the party had gone back on the promises in its election manifesto that propelled it to power in the 2018 Assembly elections.
"I am of the opinion that in the present circumstances, I am finding myself unable to fulfil all the goals of the department with full spirit," says the letter.
Mr. Singh Deo highlighted that during the tenure of the present government, not a single house was built for the homeless people and the progress of the PMAY scheme remained stagnant.
"Under PMAY, housing was to be provided for homeless people of the State, something I had discussed with you many times and had also requested for allocation of funds. But the amount was not made available, and as a result, houses for about eight lakh families could not be built. The right for rural housing was among the 36 targets of Chhattisgarh we had set for ourselves in our jan ghoshna patra (election manifesto)," Mr. Singh Deo wrote to the Chief Minister.
Three days ago, Union Panchayati Minister Giriraj Singh, who was on a visit to Chhattisgarh, had also alleged that the State government had failed to provide matching grants for house construction under PMAY.
In the four page letter, Mr. Singh Deo cited various reasons for being unable to fulfil the targets of the department as per the vision of the poll manifesto. Among these, he claimed that the draft rules for the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act prepared by his department was changed without taking him into confidence. However, earlier this month, Mr. Singh Deo had hailed the draft through a series of tweets.
Under the Mukhyamantri Samagra Gramin Vikas Yojana, a committee of secretaries headed by the Chief Secretary was constituted against the standard protocol for granting final approval to works. The discretion to approve works of any department lies with the minister concerned, he added.
Mr. Singh Deo also questioned the government's role in a recent strike called by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers.
“As a part of a conspiracy, employment assistants under MGNREGA were made to stage a strike, in which the role of Assistant Project Officers was clearly established. You yourself [Mr. Baghel] had formed a committee to fulfil the demands of the protesting employees, and yet the strike wasn’t called off. This affected wage payments of ₹1,250 crore which would’ve supported the rural economy,” the letter further added.
The two Congress heavyweights have been locked in a cold war over a purported power-sharing agreement under which they were to serve as Chief Minister for a tenure of two and a half years each. The disagreements have often been expressed through public statements, the most recent being the controversy over coal mining in the Hasdeo forests in the Sarguja region from where Mr. Baghel hails.
Matters reached a flashpoint last September when Congress MLA from Ramanujganj, Brihaspat Singh alleged that Mr. Singh Deo wanted to kill him. He was accompanied by 18 more MLAs. Back then, Mr. Singh Deo had refused to come to the Assembly until any clarification came from the government. Later, Brihaspat Singh apologised in the House for his statement while Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu made a statement on behalf of the government that the accusations made by Mr. Singh were baseless.
While the party refrained from issuing any public statement over the issue, on condition of anonymity, a party leader questioned as to why it took Mr. Singh Deo so long to figure out that he was not being allowed to work. He added that whether Mr. Deo's resignation had any correlation with the visit of Union Minister Giriraj Singh must be looked into.
Meanwhile, State BJP chief Vishnu Deo Sai said the minister’s quitting proved the dictatorial attitude of Mr. Baghel and that he was not allowing his Cabinet colleagues to discharge their duties freely.
Mr. Singh Deo will remain the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax (GST) departments. Legal experts in the State have questioned the resignation and said it was the prerogative of the Chief Minister to allot a portfolio to a Cabinet member or divest him or her of any responsibility.
