Bhopal: Digvijaya warns of staging sit-in after MP CM cancels meet to discuss woes of project-hit people

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh on Thursday said that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has cancelled his scheduled meeting with him to discuss the plight of people affected by Tem and Suthalia irrigation projects.

Singh had earlier warned to stage a sit-in before the chief minister's official residence if the latter did not give him time to meet by January 20.

"The Madhya Pradesh chief minister has no time to meet farmers affected by the irrigation projects. He doesn't even have time to meet a former chief minister and current Rajya Sabha MP. After waiting for one-and-a-half months, his (CM) office informed me that on January 21, at 11.15 am, he (Chouhan) has given me time to meet, and today, I was informed that he will not meet me as he is busy," Singh said in a statement.

The senior Congress leader said he will now stage a sit-in in front of the chief minister's residence at 11.15 am on Friday.

"If he doesn't want to meet me, I have no objections but I will sit there. If they want to arrest me they should do so, but this kind of attitude will prove costly to you Shivraj Singh Chouhanji. I am telling you," Singh warned.

Efforts to contact Chouhan's office on the issue proved futile.

Earlier on January 16, Singh had warned of staging a sit-in before Chouhan's official residence here if the latter failed to give time to him by January 20 to discuss the problems faced by people of Bhopal, Rajgarh and Vidisha districts due to Tem and Suthalia irrigation projects.

Sources close to the Congress leader had told PTI that finally the chief minister had given time on January 21 at 11 am for a meeting on the issue of project-affected persons.

In a letter addressed to Chouhan four days ago, Singh had claimed the chief minister had not been giving him an appointment for the last one month, which he said, showed the "insensitive attitude towards the project-affected persons and farmers".

The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister has said in the past he had written several letters highlighting the plight of people affected by the two dams, but the CM had not yet replied to any of them.

The Rajya Sabha MP has said thousands of acres of land will be submerged, while many villages will partially or totally go underwater due to the Tem and Suthalia projects. He has said very little compensation was being given to the affected people in Bhopal, Rajgarh, and Vidisha districts.

The Congress veteran has said that he visited the affected villages recently and met their residents who were unhappy with the state government's compensation policy.