Digvijay Singh to reveal 'corruption' in MP govt: Congress

BHOPAL: The Congress on Sunday claimed that party veteran Digvijay Singh gathered evidence on "corruption" in the Madhya Pradesh government during his 'Narmada yatra', which he is going to reveal soon.

The 3,300-km-long yatra, which was started on September 30 last year, will conclude on Monday.

"During his yatra, our party leader has collected huge evidence pertaining to corruption of the BJP government in the state," Leader of Opposition in the MP Assembly, Ajay Singh, said.

Singh, 70, and his wife Amrita started the 'parikrama' (circumambulation) of the Narmada river in MP as a "religious and spiritual" exercise from Narsinghpur district.

After completing his yatra, the former chief minister would surely reveal about the rampant corruption prevailing in the state, the LoP said.

During the yatra, aggrieved people and whistle-blowers gave Digvijay Singh documents pertaining to the alleged illegal mining and wrongdoings in the Narmada river, state Congress leader P D Sharma, who had also walked some distance during the yatra, claimed.

"He is going to drop bombshells after completing the yatra," Sharma said.

The overwhelming support that he has received during the yatra from people, especially the religious leaders, has "baffled" the chief minister, Digvijay Singh's son and Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh said.

"Chouhan is so scared that he recently accorded the MoS status to five saints in a futile attempt to dim the impact of my father's yatra. These saints were about to take out the 'Narmada Ghotala Yatra' against the alleged illegal mining in the river, but withdrew after getting the MoS status," he said.

But by granting them MoS status, Chouhan has courted trouble and is being criticised nationwide for it, he said.

"The state government is so worried that its intelligence wing is keeping a close watch on my father's yatra," the legislator alleged.

The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, which goes to poll later this year, recently accorded the MoS status to five Hindu religious leaders -- Narmadanand Maharaj, Hariharanand Maharaj, Computer Baba, Bhayyu Maharaj and Pandit Yogendra Mahant.

The five saints had proposed a stir against an alleged scam in the state government's Narmada conservation programme. A day after getting the 'MoS' status, two of them cancelled their proposed agitation.

Three months back, Digvijay Singh, the descendant of the erstwhile royal family of Raghogarh, had said he was worried about the plight of the revered river due to illegal sand mining.

The Narmada is the "oldest" river in India, he had said during his yatra covering 11 Assembly constituencies in the state and demanded urgent measures to ensure its revival.