Minister fumbles, Opp levels serious charge

Minister fumbles, Opp levels serious charge

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi

She could not have been nervous, but improper briefing and lack of information probably made the Minister for Social Welfare, Woman and Child Development, Sudha Chaudhary, to be so.

Chaudhary rose to reply the Opposition’s charge of loopholes in her department during the Budget speech, but her 15-minute speech gave many causes for consternation among the Opposition.

She rose to read out the Progress Report 2009-10 and Work plan report 2010-11 of her department. Before this, the Opposition had collected sufficient ammunition to blast her claims.

Among various welfare projects of her department, she read out: “The department has been providing Rs 900 to each student of the blind school of Ranchi.”

Chaudhary could not anticipate that Speaker CP Singh was ready with a few papers to make her nervous. “Mantriji are you sure that the students of blind school are paid the said amount as mentioned in the report?” Singh said.

“Yes Sir,” the Minister made a bold claim.

“I have received a letter from the principal of the school…the principal says that only Rs 500 are paid against each student. He has requested me to increase the amount,” Singh waved the letter.

The Opposition lost no time to condemn the Minister. JVM MLA Pradeep Yadav demanded an ‘all party probe’ to fix responsibility of the officials and even rushed to the well of the House for quite some times.

Flanked by Deputy Chief Minister Raghuwar Das and party MLAs, the Minister lost her nerves. Das came to defend her but the Opposition relented only after the Government announced to hold an inquiry into the matter by secretary-level officials.

Even in the first half of the session, Chaudhary was gasping for a suitable reply when Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey said that the school has been running without power for the past 16 months.

But that was not the end of the admonition by the Opposition. There was yet another episode of her agony when she stood to reply other charges of corruption against CDPOs of the department.

Madhavlal Singh (Congress), Annapurna Devi and Sanjay Singh Yadav of the RJD raised the matter of the corruption in the appointments of the helpers for different welfare projects of the Government, including Anganwari.

Stating that CDPOs are beyond the control of the Government, the Opposition accused them of taking bribes for the appointments of the helpers. The Opposition even blamed CDPOs for siphoning off money meant for welfare projects.

Everything was fine till the Minister assured to probe the allegation and sought support of the MLAs to run the projects. Chaudhary, however, added that due consent is taken of the MP, MLA and the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned area in the appointment of helpers.

The Opposition protested her statement with high pitched sloganeering often rushing to the well of the House. She continued to stick to her statement. “Please try to understand…she is the first-time MLA. She has become a Minister for the first time…perhaps she might not be aware of this. Please consider it…let her finish,” the Speaker appealed the House.

The Minister was as nervous as a rookie conductor asked to lead a mega philharmonic concert with little knowledge of music.