10 April,2024 02:56 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Jairam Ramesh. File Pic
Congress on Wednesday alleged that the BJP has neglected the people of Maharashtra as it was distracted by its own "horse-trading and deal-making" agendas, reported the PTI.
The Congress asked how much donation did it take to engineer the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, as per the PTI.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh attacked the BJP ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Maharashtra's Ramtek and posed questions on key issues affecting the state.
"Today, the PM heads to Ramtek in Maharashtra, a state that was rocked by hundreds of farmer suicides last year, and where corruption charges continue to pile up. Distracted by its own horse-trading and deal-making agendas, the BJP has neglected to serve the people," Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
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According to the PTI, posing questions to the prime minister, the senior Congress leader said that on an average day in Maharashtra, seven farmers take their own lives, and this heartbreaking statistic comes from the state's Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, who reported that 2,366 farmers died by suicide between January and October last year.
"He was quick to remind us that 'The state government gives 1 lakh rupees to the kin of farmers who die by suicide'. What the Minister did not reveal is the callousness from the government that compels farmers to take such drastic steps in the first place," he said, the news agency reported.
Jairam Ramesh claimed that 60 per cent of districts faced drought conditions last year but no help arrived from the government.
"When crops were damaged by unseasonal rains in more than half of the state, farmers were extended loan waivers, but 6.56 lakh farmers were deprived of this relief due to software glitches. In the face of this state-sponsored callousness, the Congress Nyay Patra has guaranteed farmers MSP as per the Swaminathan Committee's recommendation, a farm loan waiver with a permanent commission set up to implement it smoothly, and settlement of all crop insurance claims within 30 days," he said, reported the PTI.
What is the BJP's vision to support Maharashtra's and India's farmers, Jairam Ramesh asked.
He said that on January 4, the Joint Director of Health Services (procurement cell) in Mumbai floated a "suspicious" tender for the state's ambulance services.
This tender was first floated in September 2023, and then mysteriously scrapped, he added.
"The latest bid was floated with a notice period of just seven days, was a ten-year long contract, and carried a massive Rs 8,000 crore price tag. Despite initial interest from over 30 companies, eventually only one bidder emerged, and the final contract is expected to exceed 10,000 crores by 2034," he said, the news agency reported on Wednesday.
"Many questions have been raised about this opaque process. Why wasn't the bidding process for the new contract started sooner than January 4th, given that the old contract was about to end on Jan 31st? Why was the state unable to carry out a forensic audit of the service's performance between 2014 and 2024? Why is the operational cost for ambulances so high? If the government is willing to make such a large outlay, why are ambulance services being outsourced, unlike other states where the government owns the vehicles? Is this another tender that the BJP was planning to award to one of its cronies in return for some Electoral Bonds Chanda?" he said, according to the PTI.
Ramesh said that Maharashtra's 2022 political crisis showed the nation that the BJP's "greed for power" is much greater than its regard for democratic values.
They did not hesitate to use their ill-gotten electoral bonds donation to buy Shiv Sena and NCP MLAs, and have destroyed Maharashtra's political culture in the process, he alleged.
"We now know that the electoral bonds scam cost Indian citizens Rs 4 lakh crore. The question is how much chanda did it take to engineer the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Sarkar? And what price did the people of India have to pay to keep the BJP's horse-trading coffers full?" Jairam Ramesh said and asked the prime minister to break his silence on these issues.
(with PTI inputs)
