Ignoring the charge-sheet prepared against him by the local BJP unit, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi today met PM A.B. Vajpayee with a five-point demands charter asking for special category status for Chhattisgarh and inclusion of ‘‘Chhattisgari’’ in the fourth schedule of the Constitution.The PM, during his two-day visit to Bilaspur three months back had claimed that the Centre had not received any proposal asking for a special category status for the state, as such the issue was not under consideration. Jogi had then accused the PM of lying and had released some of his official correspondence with the Centre on the issue. Jogi is CM due to Pope, says BJP The BJP’s chargesheet, which party general secretary Pramod Mahajan released here yesterday, has raised a new controversy after the party’s allegations that the Pope had played a key-role in sending Ajit Jogi as CM to Chhattisgarh. BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday parried journalists’s questions as to how the BJP knows that Jogi had the Pope’s blessings. ‘‘I can help you in getting answers from the party’s coal unit which prepared the chargesheet,’’ he replied. (ENS) Now, taking advantage of the PM’s presence in the state — the third time after the formation of Chhattisgarh — Jogi has put the proposal in black and white. For Jogi, this issue is all set to become a lethal weapon against the BJP in the coming Assembly polls. ‘‘If BJP wants to take credit for the formation of Chhattisgarh and encash on it in the Assembly polls, let the PM announce a special category status for the state and sanction a special economic package,’’ Jogi said. He also said that Uttaranchal — a state formed with Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — had already been granted special category status.In his two-page letter which Jogi handed to Vajpayee, the CM sought to revive the demand for purchase of paddy by FCI and reimbursements of cost incurred by the government in buying the farmers’ paddy in the last two years.Two other issues which Jogi has raised in his letter include employments to locals in the Central Government’s PSUs like NMDC, SECL and NTPC. These PSUs have large operations in the state in mineral and power sectors.
