LS witnesses Cong-BJP faceoff on Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) The BJP's attempt to focus on the Centre's responsibilty in meeting the demand of PDS quota for BPL families, drought affected districts and power shortage in Madhya Pradesh today led to commotion in the Lok Sabha during zero hour when Madhusudan Mistry of the Congress tried to pin this blame on the state government.

Pointing out that MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with his ministerial colleagues was sitting on a 24-hour fast in Bhopal today, Ms Sumitra Mahajan (BJP) charged the Centre with resorting to ''step-motherly'' treatment with the state in allotting foodgrains for 60 lakh BPL families and for not providing drought assistance in 41 of 49 districts. Stating that the Sarni power plant was left with only four days of coal stock, Ms Mahajan also charged the Centre with slashing the state's share of electricity from the Central pool and curtailing coal supply to thermal stations.

But Mr Mistry held the MP government for failure on all these fronts, alleging that the BJP regime was now trying to blame the Centre for failing to fulfill its own election promise of providing ''bijli, sadak and pani.'' UNI SAA RR BD1405