The final day of the winter session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly saw repeated disruptions from Congress MLAs from the tribal community who alleged that the Shivraj Singh government was cutting down the budget meant for their community gradually over the years.

Brandishing Rs 400 cash in and outside the House, Congress MLA Onkar Singh Markam alleged that the BJP government has provisioned a budget of Rs 400 for the tribal community. He was referring to MP appropriation of accounts bill 2021 which was cleared by the Assembly on Thursday.

The bill under tribal affairs head shows Rs 200 under revenue and an equal amount under the capital head.

Under Rs 19,000 crore supplementary budget, the state government has set aside Rs 400 for the tribal community, alleged Markam after the session was adjourned. Earlier the tribal MLAs had boycotted the proceedings leading to the adjournment of the proceedings. These MLAs claimed that the tribal budget of Rs 4,000 crore provisioned in 2016-17, 2017-18 has now been curtailed to Rs 1,700 crore, said Dr Hiralal Alawa, the national convener of Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti a tribal outfit. Dr Alawa had been elected as an MLA on Congress ticket. Dr Alawa alleged that the budget meant for the tribals was splurged on Adivasi Gaurav Diwas.

He added that he got a reply that the information is being compiled as he asked about the event whereas a government order specifically mentioned that Rs 12 crore out of the tribal scheme was spent on this, he added.

Part of the protesting bunch, former Home Minister Bala Bachchan demanded that tribals should be given reservations in promotion and alleged that the government is averse to the idea. He claimed that tribal schools in 5,000 blocks are being merged with the Department of School Education. Rs 230 crore tribal scholarship is yet to be distributed, he added.

Home Minister Narottam Mishra came down heavily on the protesting opposition saying in his 31 years of parliamentary career, he hasn’t seen such worthless opposition. The House takes up bills, resolutions and budget for discussions but they (opposition) did not discuss anything, added Mishra. Questioning the wisdom of the Congress MLAs, Mishra claimed they don’t know this simple fact that budgetary provision could be 0 or Re 1 and amount if transferred in the head later on.

Govt ducks query on Hamidia hospital fire incident

In response to a couple of queries on the death of four infants at the government hospital in Bhopal, Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang in a written reply claimed that the short circuit seemed the cause of the incident. He, however, ducked queries on fixing the responsibility on the fatal incident.

In a recent fire incident at the hospital, four infants had died after one of the neonatal ventilators sparked after being switched on. CM Shivraj had ordered stringent action on those guilty for the remiss.

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