Lal Bagh PalaceMadhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is in a benevolent mood. After nearly five uninterrupted years in office, not only is he in a hurry to solve problems pending for years in the state, he is also in a mood to please all and sundry - industrialists, journalists and even the hoi polloi.But with elections to the state Assembly due before the end of the year, Digvijay's sudden streak of generosity has raised the hackles of Governor Bhai Mahavir, the opposition BJP, and even some members of his own Congress party.Much has happened in the recent past to raise eyebrows: be it the leasing out of the Government's loss-making mechanised agricultural farm at Babai in Hoshangabad or the handing over of the Lal Bagh Palace of Indore to a public trust or even the rash of "special" appointments in government jobs - each of the chief minister's recent decisions has stirred up a controversy.Last week the state Government handed over a 3,364-acre farm, owned by the public sector Madhya Pradesh Agro Industries Corporation, to Reliance Agro Tech Pvt Ltd after the corporate giant emerged the highest bidder in an open tender. Reliance plans to invest Rs 42 crore on modernising the farm and setting up food-processing units in the next few years.On the face of it, all this sounds good. The only catch is that to accommodate the Reliance Group, the Government waived a crucial condition laid down in the original tender - that the bidder should have at least five years experience in Agro industry..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Reliance Agro Tech is just an 18-month-old company. With Digvijay publicly admitting that Reliance Chairman Dhirubhai Ambani is a "good friend", the charges of favouritism don't entirely seem out of place.The BJP has called the arrangement "a sellout" and demanded that the deal be scrapped. Sources say the state Law Department had objected to the deletion of the experience clause in the final contract. But Digvijay brushes aside all criticism, saying "It was a deliberate decision. Reliance offered Rs 13 crore more than the other bidder. Our move is transparent."Man: Digvijay Singh's aim is to win friendsThe same, however, cannot be said of the large number of "special" and "mercy" appointments to government jobs in the state. The Cabinet is estimated to have made hundreds of such appointments over the past few months, violating the freeze on government jobs.In the case of "mercy" appointments, meant for the dependants of government employees who die in harness, the rules have been stretched to ridiculous lengths. Jobs are now being offered to wards of government servants who died 20 to 30 years ago. "This is cronyism in its worst form," says state BJP leader and former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa. The governor echoes similar sentiments. In a strongly worded letter to the chief minister, Mahavir has censured the Government and cautioned that his consent for regularising these appointments should not be taken for granted.Relations between the chief minister and the governor were never cordial after the BJP Government at the Centre sent Mahavir, one of its senior leaders, to Bhopal five months ago. Now they are truly frosty.The tension between the two is also tangible over another contentious issue - the Lal Bagh Palace at Indore. Digvijay has handed over the administration of the palace to a 10-member public trust to "develop it as a centre of artistic and cultural excellence".The palace - built by the Holkars in 1926 - was acquired by the state Government in 1981, but over the past 17 years, the structure has been in a state of neglect.The public trust, however, has created a public controversy, with even Congressmen expressing concern at the move. Former minister and ex-mayor of Indore Suresh Seth has threatened to launch an agitation against it. At the centre of the row is the newly appointed chairman of the trust, Abhay Chajalani - proprietor and chief editor of Nai Dunia, a Hindi daily published from Indore.Chajalani, a long-time ally of Digvijay, has considerable political clout in the state and the Government is being charged with going out of its way to grant favours to him.Chajalani is already involved in a controversy following the state Government's decision to allot Nai Dunia a plot of land valued at Rs3.48 crore for just Rs 5 lakh. The issue is now the subject of a public interest petition in the high court.Chajalani, however, dismisses the criticism of his appointment to the trust, saying its deed provides for enough safeguards to prevent the misuse of the property by its members.The governor apparently does not think so. In a letter to the chief minister, he has questioned Chajalani's competence to head the trust and asked Digvijay to reconsider the decision.But "Diggy Raja" is unfazed by the charges of favouritism and corruption his schemes have evoked. Typically, he looks at these actions as investments for the future, the earliest dividends of which he hopes to reap at the next election.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 5, 1998--- ENDS ---
