By
L.S. Herdenia
BHOPAL: Both BJP and Congress have started
preparations for the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. At present Congress
holds only three seats while the BJP’s tally is 26. The Congress won only two
seats in the 2014 general elections. The victorious candidates were Kamal Nath
and Jyotiraditya Scindia. But their victories in the strict sense cannot be
termed as victory of Congress. They owe their election to their personal
popularity.
While
Kamal Nath since 1980 has never tasted defeat, Scindia too never lost any
election. Not only Jyotiraditya, any other member of Scindia family, including
his grand mother Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, father Madhv Rao Scindia and his
aunt Yashodhara Raje Scindia never lost any election. They have the advantage
of belonging to Scindia royal family. In fact, Madhav Rao once defeated Atal
Behari Vajpayee in Gwalior constituency. Thus if credit for their victories is
given to themselves, one can say that not a single Congress candidate was
elected in 2014. But in the bye-election for Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency held
in 2015 Congress candidate Kanti Lal Bhuria defeated the BJP candidate.
According
to the analysis of the just concluded Vidhan Sabha elections, Congress can now
hope to win 12 Lok Sabha seats. They could possibly be Chhindwara, Guna,
Ratlam, Dhar, Khargone, Betul, Mandla, Shahdol, Balaghat, Morena, Bhind and
Gwalior.
In
Madhya Pradesh every Lok Sabha seat has eight segments (assembly
constituencies). In all the above mentioned Lok Sabha constituencies Congress
won a majority of assembly seats in Ratlam, Dhar, Khargone, Mandla, Balaghat,
Morena, Bhind, Gwalior and Chhindwara Lok Sabha Constituencies. Besides, there
are some such Lok Sabha seats where the Congress has won four out of eight
segments. The most interesting fact is that among the Lok Sabha seats which the
Congress hopes to win majority are reserved constituencies. According to
reliable sources, Congress has decided to make one minister and four party MLAs
in charge of each Lok Sabha Constituency. This team will be accountable for the
party’s performance in each constituency.
BJP
too has started preparations for the Lok Sabha polls. Party president Amit Shah
has constituted an eight-member team for each constituency. Besides, a team of
six members each consists of one in-charge and one convener. During the January
11 and 12 party meeting in Delhi Shah discussed the strategy for the Lok Sabha
polls.
It
is generally realised that if the party loses even ten Lok Sabha seats in the
May 2019 elections it will affect its chances of getting a majority. In view of
this possibility the central leadership has decided to pay special attention
not only to Madhya Pradesh but also to Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Meanwhile,
the BJP suffered a serious setback when the Comptroller and Auditor General
(CAG) exposed massive financial mismanagement, irregularities, misuse of
government funds, unauthorized foreign tours, and extension of undue benefits
to distillers during BJP rule in Madhya Pradesh. The government failed to
ensure submission of utilisation certificates (UCs) on grants-in-aid of Rs
18,080.10 crore, says the latest CAG report.
“Financial irregularities and weak
fiscal management of the BJP government have been exposed. It is clear from the
CAG report how a group was working for the previous government. Losses
amounting to crores of rupees have been revealed,” said Chief Minister Kamal
Nath. “I have been saying from the very beginning that corruption took over the
last government. A probe will be conducted. Detailed investigations will be
done. We will constitute a Jan Ayog (People’s Commission) and hand it over all
such cases. Punitive action will be taken against those who were involved. We
will spare no one responsible for losses to the government exchequer,” the CM
warned, adding: “The CAG report is just a trailer and the full film is yet to
come. Keep watching.”
“Blocking of funds on incomplete
works impinges negatively on the quality of expenditure. Water resources
department, PWD, and Narmada Valley Development Authority had 242 incomplete
projects, valued at Rs 9,557.16 crore, with cost over-run of Rs 4,800.14 crore
in 24 projects (where costs have been revised),” says CAG report for the year
ended March 30, 2017.
According to the report, the
government did not constitute a consolidated sinking fund for amortization of
loans unlike in other states. This resulted in the state government not
contributing Rs 635.72 crore (0.50% of their outstanding liabilities of Rs
1,27,144.43 crore as on 31 March 2016). This overstated the revenue surplus and
understated the fiscal deficit of 2016-17 by Rs 635.72 crore, it says.
Fifteen foreign tours were organsied
by the Madhya Pradesh Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Limited at
an expense of Rs 8.96 crore from funds released to it as grants-in-aid under
the head “5,531-Destination MP Investment Drive” by Directorate of Industries
(DoI), GoMP.
The total financial implication of
CAG’s findings on the state’s revenue sector was Rs 4,712.16 crore – covering
levy and collection of excise duty, assessment of taxes on works contracts and
builders under MPVAT Act, sand mining and environment consequences and
assessment and collection water tax. The audit found that the excise department
failed to prescribe “suitable or any norms” for production of alcohol from
grains by taking into consideration starch content in grains, fermentation
efficiency and distillation efficiency in accordance with the technology
employed by distillers, which deprived the government of a minimum revenue of
Rs 1,086.65 crore. Failure to revise fermentation efficiency and distillation
efficiency deprived the government of another Rs 82.54 crore in excise duty.
The government failed to impose
penalty of Rs 462.77 crore on 12 defaulting distillers units that submitted
excise verification certificates with delays up to 401 days. The government’s
policy to only allow distillers of the state to participate in tender process
for supply of country liquor without analysing the realistic cost of production
led to less competition, cartel formation and undue benefit of Rs 653.08 crore
to distillers, the report says.
Collectors of Balaghat and Ujjain
fixed the reserve price on dead rent instead of the estimated quantity of sand
in 31 mines resulting in short realisation of royalty of Rs 3.37 crore.
Executive engineers of 18 divisions failed to recover water tax dues worth Rs
1,489.67 crore from industries, domestic water supply entities and cultivators.
In 18 district mining offices (DMOs), royalty of Rs 62.50 crore was not /short
realized from 58 lessees and 11 contractors. (IPA Service)
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