By IANS
Raipur : A no-confidence motion brought up by the Congress against Chhattisgarh’s the four-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was defeated Tuesday evening with 26 votes in favour and 52 against after a marathon 16-hour debate marred by personal charges.
The debate over the no-confidence motion began Monday 12 noon and went on till 3.10 a.m. Tuesday without any break. The house reassembled in the evening. At the end of the debate, the speaker asked the members to put signatures on the vote to decide the fate of the Raman Singh government that will complete four years in office Dec 7.
Despite the defeat of the first-ever motion against the BJP government, the Congress strongly raised the issue of the government’s alleged role in several multi-million rupees scams, much to the discomfort of the treasury benches.
The opposition incited the state ministers several times and many members exchanged personal charges in the wee hours of Tuesday and also later in the day.
Congress members Mohammed Akbar, Ravindra Choubey, Dharamjeet Singh and Bhupesh Baghel led the attack.
Akbar accused the government of “underhand deals” with Tata Steel and Essar Steel for their proposed plants in Bastar region and recommending to the central government dozens of companies in haste for coal blocks and iron ore mines allotment.
The debate ended with an emotionally charged speech by Chief Minister Raman Singh who rejected the charges and said his government was maintaining transparency in administration.
“The BJP is committed to poor people and from January 2008 the government will launch a Rs.800 crore (Rs.8 billion) scheme to provide 34 lakh (3.4 million) families rice at the cost of Rs.3 per kg,” he said.
Responding to the charge of lavish expenditure and financial mismanagement, he said, amid regular interruptions by opposition, that the state’s establishment expenditure had been brought down to 33 percent in 2007 from 39 percent of 2003 when the Congress was in power.