Senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia today said some 42,000 families in Madhya Pradesh, living in the catchment area of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, were facing the danger of being rendered homeless, and warned of an agitation if the state government did not rehabilitate them.
Addressing a public rally here, he demanded that the BJP government in the state ensured a proper rehabilitation for the dam oustees and compensated them at the earliest.
"We too want the development through the Sardar Sarovar Dam. But the 42,000 families should be rehabilitated in accordance with various Supreme Court orders. The Congress will launch an agitation if the state government does not pay heed to the rehabilitation of these people," Scindia said.
The Congress leader alleged that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had sent 3,000 police personnel to Chikhalda in Dhar district last week to detain Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, who was on a hunger strike seeking a proper rehabilitation of the dam oustees.
"This action was more barbaric than the atrocities under the British rule. The chief minister should resign for this," he said.
The Guna MP claimed that a disruption in oxygen supply had led to the death of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh last week and added that the reason for 17 deaths at Indore's MY Hospital in June was also the same.
"The governments in both these BJP-ruled states (UP and MP) do not have money to arrange oxygen to save the lives of patients. But, the BJP has enough money to offer bribes...To MLAs for winning a single Rajya Sabha seat," he alleged.
Ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, the Congress had alleged that the BJP was offering money to its MLAs to either switch sides or cross-vote, a charge denied by the saffron party.
"Farmers are committing suicide in the state as they are not getting a good price for their produce. On the other hand, middlemen with links to the BJP are ruling from palatial buildings," Scindia said.
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