CM goes abroad, state stays wired

All of yesterday, he held meetings to finalise plans for the state’s fourth foundation day celebrations beginning on November 1. Singh proposes to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Tomorrow, he will address a meeting of district collectors to assign them tasks to complete during his two-week absence from the state. That apart, in the next three days, he will chair the meeting of the Bastar Development Authority, attend a function at Korba and visit Jaipur on the invitation of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.

But that isn’t the hard work. Singh’s crucial test comes this weekend at the BJP Chief Ministers’ meet slated for September 11 and 12. Over the past two days, Singh has spent more than 10 hours consulting administrative secretaries and his aides in the CM’s secretariat to prepare papers for his presentation at the CMs’ meet, where he is expected to focus on schemes which the BJP had promised in its poll manifesto. ‘‘There is an overall satisfaction about the work done by the government,’’ says party president Nand Kumar Sai but adds, a few loose ends on the administrative fronts are yet to be tightened.

But not many in the party or outside would buy Sai’s story. ‘‘The performance of the government in nine months, at least the last three months in the Lok Sabha, has not been much, beyond a dozen schemes promised in the BJP manifesto, including distribution of iodised salt to BPL families and tribals at 25 paise per kg,’’ says a former BJP MLA. Singh’s ambitious project to distribute cows among Adivasi families will take at least another five months to materialise.

There is other business to take care of while he is on his trip abroad. Singh says he will make ‘‘full use’’ of communication technology to run the state’s affairs through his foreign tour. Accompanying him are two top government officials — principal secretary (industries and commerce) Shiv Raj Singh and Chhattisgarh State Industries Development Corporation MD Shailesh Pathak. His closest aide, Virakam Sisodia, will also escort him on tour.

Only last week, state finance minister Amar Aggarawal and PWD minister Rajesh Munat returned from a 12-day tour of UK and South Africa, sponsored by the World Bank.