Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan has hinted at undertaking a 'maun vrat'
(vow of silence), if the Centre does not give assent to the MP
Special Courts Bill soon.
Chouhan told this to reporters at Mantralaya (state
secretariat) here on Wednesday, before he left for Delhi to meet
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, to whom, he had already
written a letter in this regard.
Chouhan said that if the Centre delays in giving
assent to the MP Special Courts Bill any further, he might
observe a 'maun vrat'.
According to sources, even as Chidambaram has assured
Chouhan of necessary action, the latter said that he might
undertake 'maun vrat' only after waiting for some time.
Asserting that the Bill is necessary for a speedy
trial of corruption cases, Chouhan said that he failed to
understand why the Centre was delaying the assent of the Bill
in Madhya Pradesh, when a similar Bill in Bihar had already
been passed and came into force.
Chouhan had met President Pratibha Patil on January 22
over the issue.
Terming the chief minister's decision as "ridiculous",
the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh said that
corruption could not be curbed through a Special Court Act, as
there is no dearth of anti-corruption laws in the state. He
said that strong willpower is necessary to deal with
corruption.
"There is no dearth of laws in the state for checking
corruption. One needs a strong willpower to end the corruption
and not the Special Courts Act," Ajay Singh said in a
statement issued last evening.
He asked whether there was no law in the state today,
through which, the Chief Minister could curb corruption.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 14:32