Tweet
Cong wants Opp CMs to resign
Taking its fight to the Opposition camp, the Government on Saturday demanded resignation of Chief Ministers of Opposition-ruled States which had played a crucial role in deciding mining lease allottees and its execution, but termed the BJP’s demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resignation over Coalgate as ‘unjust’.
As part of the Congress strategy to send senior Ministers to various States to convey the UPA Government’s defence over Coalgate to people, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad held a Press conference in Bangalore and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in Lucknow to make these assertions.
“BJP men, who are leveling allegations, should be asked to get resignation of their CMs that why they executed the lease. Because the responsibility was theirs (since) they executed the lease and decided that in whose favour it would be done,” Sibal said.
He said that under Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act only the State Governments have the right to execute lease. “The Centre has no right in it. If any person has objection to the lease executed in favour of a particular person or company, whose responsibility was it,” he questioned.
The Government had already released letters written by Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan along with Left Front-ruled West Bengal and BJD-ruled Odisha Governments opposing open bidding of coal mines.
Azad termed Parliament’s disruption by the Opposition as an election agenda rather than effort to know the truth. “The Opposition was not interested in knowing the truth.
“They just wanted to carry on their agenda forward, knowing well that elections are going to take place in some States in the next two or three months,” he charged and said that the BJP’s demand of PM’s resignation is unjust.
In the next one week, other Ministers like P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, Jyotiraditya Scindia, V Narayanasami and Pawan Kumar Bansal will visit various States to convey the Government’s point of view. Chidambaram will go to Maharashtra, Jairam to West Bengal and Jharkhand, Sharma to Chhattisgarh, Khurshid to Madhya Pradesh, Narayanasamy to Odisha and Bansal to Rajasthan till September 15 as part of the exercise.
They want to counter the BJP’s programme to hit streets to ‘educate’ people in every nook and corner of the country on the rampant corruption under the Manmohan Singh regime. The Opposition party, which had fanned its senior leaders to major cities of the country last week, has decided to intensify its agitation against the UPA Government’s corruption by holding dharna, rallies, demonstrations at block level to inform the people about the CAG report which revealed that private companies got windfall gain of `1.86 lakh crore in the allotment of coal blocks. The modalities of the proposed drive will be worked out at a BJP meet on September 13.
BJP leader Rajnath Singh said in Ghaziabad that UPA Ministers have once again been exposed and his party will soon take up the matter to the masses and tell them about wrongdoings of the UPA Government.
With names of many Congress leaders like Subodh Kant Sahay, Vijay Darda, his brother Rajender Darda and son along with DMK Minister Jagatrakshikan and RJD’s Prem Chand Gupta cropping up in connection with the scam, the BJP wants to keep up the pressure on the scam tainted UPA Government.
The Government on its part has realised that it is loosing a battle of perception. So the Congress is now planning a major reshuffle of both the Government and the party by the end of this month to refurbish their image. As part of the exercise major changes are expected in the party with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi taking a greater responsibility while many PCC presidents including that of Bihar likely to be replaced.
Also Cabinet reshuffle is likely to happen to fill the vacancies caused due to demise of Vilasrao Deshmukh, resignation of Virbhadra Singh and remove some non-performing Ministers and reduce the burden of those holding multiple portfolios. Also the DMK has indicated that it wants to re-occupy its two seats vacated by A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran in the Cabinet. However, it remains to be seen whether these proposed changes will have desired impact on the battered image of the Government.
Taking its fight to the Opposition camp, the Government on Saturday demanded resignation of Chief Ministers of Opposition-ruled States which had played a crucial role in deciding mining lease allottees and its execution, but termed the BJP’s demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resignation over Coalgate as ‘unjust’.
As part of the Congress strategy to send senior Ministers to various States to convey the UPA Government’s defence over Coalgate to people, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad held a Press conference in Bangalore and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in Lucknow to make these assertions.
“BJP men, who are leveling allegations, should be asked to get resignation of their CMs that why they executed the lease. Because the responsibility was theirs (since) they executed the lease and decided that in whose favour it would be done,” Sibal said.
He said that under Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act only the State Governments have the right to execute lease. “The Centre has no right in it. If any person has objection to the lease executed in favour of a particular person or company, whose responsibility was it,” he questioned.
The Government had already released letters written by Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan along with Left Front-ruled West Bengal and BJD-ruled Odisha Governments opposing open bidding of coal mines.
Azad termed Parliament’s disruption by the Opposition as an election agenda rather than effort to know the truth. “The Opposition was not interested in knowing the truth.
“They just wanted to carry on their agenda forward, knowing well that elections are going to take place in some States in the next two or three months,” he charged and said that the BJP’s demand of PM’s resignation is unjust.
In the next one week, other Ministers like P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, Jyotiraditya Scindia, V Narayanasami and Pawan Kumar Bansal will visit various States to convey the Government’s point of view. Chidambaram will go to Maharashtra, Jairam to West Bengal and Jharkhand, Sharma to Chhattisgarh, Khurshid to Madhya Pradesh, Narayanasamy to Odisha and Bansal to Rajasthan till September 15 as part of the exercise.
They want to counter the BJP’s programme to hit streets to ‘educate’ people in every nook and corner of the country on the rampant corruption under the Manmohan Singh regime. The Opposition party, which had fanned its senior leaders to major cities of the country last week, has decided to intensify its agitation against the UPA Government’s corruption by holding dharna, rallies, demonstrations at block level to inform the people about the CAG report which revealed that private companies got windfall gain of `1.86 lakh crore in the allotment of coal blocks. The modalities of the proposed drive will be worked out at a BJP meet on September 13.
BJP leader Rajnath Singh said in Ghaziabad that UPA Ministers have once again been exposed and his party will soon take up the matter to the masses and tell them about wrongdoings of the UPA Government.
With names of many Congress leaders like Subodh Kant Sahay, Vijay Darda, his brother Rajender Darda and son along with DMK Minister Jagatrakshikan and RJD’s Prem Chand Gupta cropping up in connection with the scam, the BJP wants to keep up the pressure on the scam tainted UPA Government.
The Government on its part has realised that it is loosing a battle of perception. So the Congress is now planning a major reshuffle of both the Government and the party by the end of this month to refurbish their image. As part of the exercise major changes are expected in the party with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi taking a greater responsibility while many PCC presidents including that of Bihar likely to be replaced.
Also Cabinet reshuffle is likely to happen to fill the vacancies caused due to demise of Vilasrao Deshmukh, resignation of Virbhadra Singh and remove some non-performing Ministers and reduce the burden of those holding multiple portfolios. Also the DMK has indicated that it wants to re-occupy its two seats vacated by A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran in the Cabinet. However, it remains to be seen whether these proposed changes will have desired impact on the battered image of the Government.
