The main Opposition Congress on Friday carried out a frontal assault on the BJP government by in Madhya Pradesh, accusing chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and several others holding positions of authority in the state of patronising the mining mafia.
“There is complete lawlessness and those engaged in illegal mining think they can get away with murder. A direct manifestation of this is the brutal manner in which the young IPS officer Narendra Kumar was crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor trolley loaded with illegally mined stones at Bamor in Morena district on Thursday afternoon.”
This was asserted by state Congress president Kantilal Bhuria and Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh “Rahul” at a joint press conference at state Congress headquarters here on Friday afternoon.
While Mr Bhuria demanded the chief minister’s resignation, the Opposition Leader said that state home minister Umashankar Gupta and minister for mineral resources Rajendra Shukla should also step down.
They demanded a CBI probe into the brutal killing of the IPS officer at Morena and called for a statewide bandh on March 13 to focus public attention on the police officer’s murder and the larger issue of illegal mining.
Mr Bhuria said that the mining mafia has no fear of the law and the situation is completely out of control of the state government, which is failing to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. Accusing the chief minister and the state Cabinet of patronising the land and mining mafia, the state Congress chief said that Bellary scam in Karnataka is nothing compared to the mining scam in MP. He said that the mining mafia had been rattled as Singh had caught many engaged in illegal mining activity within a short period of time.
Recently, when a policeman was beaten up in Morena, senior BJP leader and local MP Narendra Singh Tomar had tried to diffuse the situation by saying there should be an inquiry into this incident, Mr Bhuria pointed out saying if the police had been allowed to take action in this case, no one could have dared to killed Singh.