Raipur:An action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against senior officials, controversial coal mining clearance in Hasdeo Arand and the tribal quota issue kept the Congress government in Chhattisgarh on its toes in 2022, but it also consolidated its position ahead of next year's Assembly elections by winning two bypolls.
Disgruntled minister T S Singh Deo's decision to quit one of his portfolios created a stir, but it did not quite rock the boat for Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The security forces appeared to have had the upper hand against the Maoists. No major incident of violence was reported from the state's insurgency-affected areas during the year.
The rescue of an 11-year-old boy from an unused borewell after a 104-hour-long operation and the crash of a state helicopter also made headlines. In April, the state government granted permission for `non-forestry' use of forest land for the Parsa mine (spread in Surguja and Surajpur districts) and Parsa East Kente Basan phase-II mine (in Surguja) in Hasdeo Arand region of north Chhattisgarh.
The decision was taken after the Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, met Baghel seeking to clear hurdles in the development of these coal blocks which have been allotted to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL). But the clearance triggered a massive protest by local villagers who thwarted the forest department's attempts to cut the trees for the project.
Health Minister Singh Deo who represents the Surguja constituency and who is Baghel's rival in the state Congress came out in support of the protest. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also stated that he had a "problem" with the decision to allow mining in Hasdeo Arand. CM Baghel initially took a combative stand, saying that the opponents of the project should first turn off the power supply at their homes.
But in July, the Chhattisgarh Assembly passed a resolution urging the Centre to cancel all coal blocks in the Hasdeo area. The ED's action in an alleged `coal levy' scam put the state government in a spot towards the end of the year. The central agency alleged that a cartel of senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen were extorting a `levy' of Rs 25 per tonne from coal transporters.
The ED has so far arrested five persons including IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and Deputy Secretary in the CM's office Soumya Chaurasia in the case. Chaurasia is considered to be an influential bureaucrat. Chief Minister Baghel termed the ED action as vendetta politics. The Chhattisgarh High Court in September set aside the previous BJP government's 2012 decision to raise the overall quota in government jobs and admissions to educational institutions to 58 per cent as it exceeded the 50 per cent ceiling.