Suspicion abounds the Chief Ministers populist scheme of providing rice at Rs 3 per kg to more than half of the states population has the unexpected fallout of making people lazy. As a result,it is believed,donkeys are replacing the manual workforce here. Hit by the problem of non-availability of labourers,brick kilns in Mahasamund district have found an economical way out. Donkeys from Uttar Pradesh were brought in to carry bricks. Each donkey can carry about 40 bricks at one go and thus can be used to shift about 8,000 bricks in a day. Around 2,000 donkeys are engaged in such work in Raipur. But the authorities do not agree with the perception that shortage of labourers is due to the Rs 1,450- crore food security scheme. They say it just shows how the success of schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) where people are getting better wages. It now remains to be seen what will happen from April 1,when rice will be supplied at Rs 2 and Re 1 for the poorest of the poor. Not yet time for youth in Durg Congress At a time when Congress general secretary and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi wants a greater share of tickets for youth,a veteran Congress leader in Chhattisgarh says that the partys candidate from the Durg Lok Sabha constituency must be in the politically mature age-group of 60 to 75 years. Septuagenarian OBC leader Pyarelal Belchandan,a former legislator who has contested parliamentary elections in the past,came out in the open following indications that octogenarian former Union minister V C Shukla was eying a party ticket from Durg. Belchandan wants the Congress to field an OBC leader of the choice of 80-year-old AICC leader Motilal Vora,who enjoys considerable political clout in the region. Police fight demon of superstition The Chhattisgarh Police have a new task at hand. Alarmed by an increase in crimes related to superstition,the authorities have chalked out a plan to train policemen and others to create awareness in their respective areas. The action plan particularly aims at dealing with the problem of harassment of women,who are accused of being tonhi (one who practices witchcraft). A state-level task force comprising prominent persons is being set up while district-level groups headed by the respective superintendents of police would motivate youth to become volunteers to create awareness using scientific methods. The problem of witch-hunting is alarming in rural areas despite the state having a stringent law the Chhattisgarh Tonhi Atrocities (prevention) Act which makes such offences non-bailable. Cong wields CAG report against Raman After tasting defeat in the Assembly polls,Congressmen have got a new weapon to corner the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The Congress calls the report which exposes corruption in departments of the Raman Singh-led Government as an authenticated chargesheet against the BJP Government. Thrilled over the CAG revelations,Congressmen are now planning to prepare copies of the report and circulate them among party leaders in all districts with the intent of making it a poll plank. The audit watchdog has pointed out glaring examples of irregularities and misappropriation of funds in Tourism,Sarvashiksha Abhiyan,Industries Corporation and many other departments and also reproduced copies of suspicious bills and fraudulent quotations in its report. Union minister faces defamation suit Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy has been dragged to court by a former BJP minister,who believes that Narayanasamys allegations of corruption in implementation of the Prime Ministers Rural Roads Scheme have tarnished his image and it was one of the reasons for his defeat in the Assembly elections. Former state rural development minister Ajay Chandrakar has filed the suit against Narayanasamy in the court of Judicial Magistrate Class One,pointing out that the Union minister had alleged Rs 1,000-crore scam in the works related to his department before the Assembly polls. The Union minister had also gone public saying that Chandrakar and some of his relatives would be sent to jail if the Congress captured power in the polls.
