RAIPUR : Senior Chhattisgarh Cabinet minister TS Singh Deo on Saturday resigned from the key department of Panchayat and Rural Development, though he will continue to hold the portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Medical Education, Twenty Point Implementation and Commercial Tax (GST) departments.
Citing the reason for his decision, Singh Deo said that under him as the panchayat and rural development minister, the department could not provide a single house to the homeless people of the state. In his letter addressed to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Singh Deo said that around 8 lakh houses were to be constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) but it could not happen owing to lack of released funds.
“I have discussed the issue several times with you with the repeated request to release the funds. But it couldn’t be done owing to which the houses of around 8 lakh people were not built,” Singh Deo, who represents the Ambikapur assembly constituency in the Surguja region, said in his letter to Baghel. “In our manifesto we had declared the right of rural housing as among the 36 key targets in Chhattisgarh to be achieved,” he added.
The leader regretted that the “present government of Chhattisgarh couldn’t build a single house for the homeless and the progress is zero”. He further stated that he was deprived of the right as the minister to recommend the works for approval under the discretionary schemes of the department. The decision of Singh Deo, who is seen as a political rival of CM Bhupesh Baghel in the state Congress, has once again sparked talks of their fallout.