In a big allegation, the lone Samajwadi Party MLA in Madhya Pradesh, Rajesh Shukla, has said that many Congress ministers in the state do not want to work without taking money.
The Samajwadi Party MLA is one of the outside supporters to the Congress government, which does not have a majority on its own in Madhya Pradesh.
The angry MLA told THE WEEK that besides the chief minister and four to five ministers, ministers in the state do not want to do the work that MLAs expect them to do for their respective Assembly constituencies and that they do not respect MLAs.
Shukla, however, ruled out any attempt of withdrawal of support to the government, saying that he had faith in the chief minister Kamal Nath.
“The chief minister Kamal Nath always gets all the works that are taken to him, but all works are not of his level and the ministers should fulfil their respective responsibilities, but they do not want to work without taking money,” Shukla said while talking to THE WEEK.
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Elaborating, he said that whenever he himself took a letter (regarding some government work) to the ministers, they were never done, but when some officials took a letter of recommendation from him (Shukla), the work gets done. “What should I make out of this?” the MLA said, indicating that the officials might be paying money to the ministers to get the work done.
Shukla said that the MLAs, even those of the ruling party, do not get any respect from the ministers, but they can't say this openly. He, however, named forest minister Umang Singhar and women and child development minister Imarti Devi while claiming that he (Shukla) was humiliated by them.
“The forest minister asked me to wait for two minutes at his bungalow when I met him regarding some work and then did not emerge for over an hour. I returned from there. Imarti Devi told me over phone that she was not a servant of Samajwadi Party of Kamal Nath. This is the situation,” he said.
As for bureaucrats, he alleged that the Chhatarpur district collector did not pick up phones of any of the MLAs and was not being shifted despite all five MLAs in the district expressing displeasure about him.
Shukla added that it becomes difficult for an MLA to face the electorate when works are not done in their Assembly constituencies. “I will be meeting the chief minister when he is back from Delhi and will put up the list of works that I have taken up with various ministers during past six months. None of them have been done.” he said.
Reacting to the allegations, the Congress media cell chief Shobha Oza said that she was not aware as to what the personal grievances of the MLA were, but she did not agree with the charges of bribe-taking as well as not doing works. “All the ministers are putting in their best and waging war against corruption and mafia, be it mining, adulteration, land mafia or others. The chief minister personally monitors the working of the ministers and the efforts against corruption,” she said.
Oza added that Shukla should take his grievances, if any, to the chief minister and get them resolved.
