Uproar in assembly over farmer loans, graft allegation in PHED
LINE OF FIRE Cong MLAs level corruption charges on PHED officials; minister asks them to prove it
The Rajasthan assembly witnessed some unruly scenes on Tuesday as the opposition tried to corner the government over alleged corruption in Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and loans given to farmers by the cooperative government.
During the Question Hour, when PHED minister Surendar Goyal was replying to a question on drinking water projects, Congress MLAs Ramesh Meena and Sukhram Vishnoi levelled corruption charges on the department officials. On parliamentary affair minister Rajendra Rathore’s request the speaker expunged the charges from assembly proceedings.
Reacting to the charges, minister Kiran Maheshwari, who earlier held the PHED portfolio, said, “Prove the allegations which have been levelled.”
Earlier, Congress MLA Sukhram Vishnoi tried cornering cooperative minister Ajay Singh Kilak asking how much loan was provided to farmers from October 1, 2016 till the note ban (November 8), and from November 9 to December 31.
Kilak informed the house that till February 24, ₹1,992 crore loan has been distributed for Rabi crops. After the country’s independence this is the first time when farmers have not been bounded to repay loans. “For 2016-17, ₹13,000 crore was the target for loan distribution, which was increased to ₹14,500 crore. Of which ₹8543.15 crore has been distributed for Kharif crops,” he said. However, the minister’s reply did not satisfied Vishnoi, who kept asking how much loan wasgivenbeforeandafternote ban. He claimed that not a single penny has been given in his constituency or in the state during the Rabi season. “After January 1, they have started distributing loans when the crop is ready,” said Vishnoi. National People’s Party (NPP) MLA Kirori Lal Meena raised the issue of panther attack in Sariska, where six people have been killed in panther attacks in recent times. He demanded an increase in compensation given to families of those killed in attacks and creation of a special task force for protection of the villagers from panthers who stray into villages from the forest.
Meena said on Sunday a panther had injured a women in Mathurawat village and a day before killed a calf in Sili Baowri village. “People are living in fear. In villages near Sariska, farmers are not going to their fields as they are scared. There is a kind of emergency,” he said.
He claimed that between October and December 2016, two were killed by the big cats. The forest department then captured two panthers and sent them to the Jaipur zoo. In the official note sheet, the panthers were mentioned as ‘aadamkhor’ (man-eater), but after a few days they were released, and five more people were killed.
“Till date the department has failed to identify the panther. Is ₹4 lakh compensation sufficient for the families, who have lost their sole bread winner? Panthers have come out of the forest as the number of tigers has increased in Sariska,” he said.
Forest minister Gajendra Singh said the latest panther caught was most likely the one who had attacked humans. He added that the absence of a tooth and pugmarks indicated that he was the panther.