Congress Calls For Bastar Bandh Ahead or PM Modi Visit

Raipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday amid call for Bastar bandh by the ruling Congress on the day in protest against the proposed divestment of the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Nagarnar Steel Plant (NSP).

Mr Modi is scheduled to address a public rally in Jagdalpur on the day.

He is also likely to dedicate to the nation the steel facility, run by National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), at Nagarnar around 20 km from Jagdalpur on the day.

However, the proposed programme at Nagarnar is yet to be confirmed officially.

This would be Mr Modi’s second visit to poll-bound Chhattisgarh in a gap of three days, coming ahead of the year-end assembly elections.

Mr Modi had addressed a BJP rally at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh in his last visit to the state on September 30.

In a joint news conference with state Congress president Deepak Baij here, the chief minister said that the Centre was planning to disinvest in NSP without paying heed to the state government’s plea to take over the steel plan.

“I have written a letter to the PM in 2020 urging the Centre not to privatise the NSP. Chhattisgarh assembly has earlier passed a resolution in this regard. The state government has also proposed the Centre to hand over the plant to the state”, Mr Baghel said.

The Union government has however inserted a clause denying the Chhattisgarh government to take part in the bidding process, Mr Baghel said.

He said that the steel plant was built with acquisition of lands of local tribals who had parted their lands for the project with the hope that it would not be handed over to the private sector.

“The entire tribal community in Bastar are agitated over the Centre’s move to go for disinvestment of the plant”, Mr Baij said.

State BJP president Arun Sao has however slammed Congress for calling Bastar bandh on the day of Mr Modi’s scheduled visit to the area, describing it ‘undemocratic and dirty politics by Congress’.

Mr Sao accused Congress of trying to disrupt Mr Modi’s programme by giving the call and said that this clearly indicated that the grand old party was panicked over losing ensuing assembly elections in the state.