News Analysis India

Tag: Rajeev Shukla

  • Government selling properties made with public money at throwaway prices: Rajeev Shukla

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla on Friday criticised the Centre’s asset monetisation plan and accused it of selling properties made with public money at throwaway prices.

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently unveiled an ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) scheme that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors ranging from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

    Speaking with reporters at the airport here, Shukla said, “In the last 70 years, all the properties that previous governments had created with public money are being sold at throwaway prices. How can this BJP government, the Modi government sell them when they have no right to sell them”.

    “There are many institutions and public undertakings whose work can be done only by the governments because if they go into private hands then the public will be in trouble,” he added.

    The Congress has been attacking the government over the national monetisation scheme and alleged that the Centre’s plan to sell “family silver” proves the “gross incompetence” of the Modi Cabinet in effectively managing the Indian economy.

  • Baghel to play key role in Congress’ UP poll preparation; meets Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is likely to play a key role in preparing the Congress organisation in Uttar Pradesh for the assembly polls next year with a focus on strategising and booth management, sources said on Sunday.

    Baghel, who had played a crucial role in the run up to the Assam Assembly polls with his team carrying out extensive booth training of party workers, met Congress general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal and Rajeev Shukla here at party chief Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence.

    According to sources, Priyanka Gandhi has asked Chhattisgarh Congress leaders be sent to Uttar Pradesh, and during the meeting, an outline of booth management and worker’s conference in the poll-bound state was also discussed.

    There was also a discussion on intensifying the activities of the Congress organisation in Uttar Pradesh.

    On the recommendation of Baghel, his parliamentary advisor Rajesh Tiwari has been made AICC secretary-in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.

    Amid speculation about an agreement in 2018 that Baghel would be chief minister of Chhattisgarh for two and a half years after which the state’s health minister, T S Singhdeo, would take over, Baghel told reporters that he had taken oath after the high command asked him to and if the party top brass asks someone else to step in, it will be so.

    However, sources in the Baghel camp said the party’s top leadership has assured him that he would continue as the chief minister.

    P L Punia, the AICC in-charge Chhattisgarh, said the speculation over leadership change was only in the media and was not true.

    “Whatever is being circulated in the media (about leadership change) has no truth in it and there is no such agreement or decision on it that is being talked about,” Punia told PTI.

    Asked if Baghel would continue as the chief minister, he answered in the affirmative.

    Baghel had also met Punia at the latter’s residence here earlier in the day before heading back to Chhattisgarh.

  • Government should issue white paper on COVID vaccination strategy: Congress

    Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said this is not the time for image-building but to help the people in need during the pandemic.

  • Congress government in Assam will be run by state people; Delhi will not control it: Rajeev Shukla

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla on Sunday said that the government to be formed by the party in Assam after the assembly election will be run by and for the people of the state and will not be remote-controlled from Delhi.

    The BJP-led government in Assam has played with the emotions and fortunes of the tea garden workers for the last five years, he alleged while addressing a press conference in Guwahati.

    “The Congress government is going to be run by the people of Assam, for the people of Assam and not on the instructions of people from Delhi,” Shukla said.

    Describing the BJP as the “Chunaavi Jumla Party” (electoral fake promise party), he alleged that reneging on promises has become a hallmark of the saffron party.

    “Assam accounts for more than 50 per cent of India’s tea production. This feeling of pride brings responsibility to each and every one of us. Tea workers dedicate their lives to ensure that the best quality of Assam tea reaches the nook and corner of the world,” he said.

    “The Congress is committed to overall upliftment of the tea workers,” the former Union minister said.

    Shukla alleged that the state’s BJP-led government has reneged its promise of increasing the daily wage of tea workers who have been demanding a hike for the last five years.

    Before the 2016 assembly elections, the BJP had promised to increase their daily wage to Rs 351, he said.

    “They (the government) increased the wage by Rs 50 to Rs 217 without fulfilling the promise or legal backup. The Gauhati High Court put a stay on this move,” Shukla said.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a blow to the tea garden workers, AICC spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said adding that the Congress shares their pain and promises to increase their daily wage to Rs 365.

    State Congress Media Department Chairperson Bobbeeta Sarma said that the party will explore constitutional and legal ways to grant ST status to Moran, Mattock, Sonowal, Tai Ahom, Sootea, Koch-Rajbongshi and the tea tribe communities in Assam keeping the status and rights of the existing ST communities intact.