A five-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Hoshangabad, 78-year-old Sartaj Singh, who is considered as an honest lawmaker, is going to contest on a Congress ticket in the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. His name has appeared in the Congress’ candidate list released this week. Singh, who had won the 2013 polls from Seoni-Malwa Assembly segment of Hoshangabad parliamentary constituency on a BJP ticket, was denied a ticket this time ostensibly because of his old age. He has served as the Health Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet at the Centre. In June 2016 when Singh was Public Works Minister, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan dropped him from the ministry for “non-performance”. However, sources claim that he was removed as he took on the powerful road construction mafia which has close ties with the top-most bureaucrats of the state. Soon after taking charge of the portfolio in 2013, Singh, in perhaps the first such initiative ever taken by a minister, had established a laboratory at his residence to test the quality of construction material that was being used by private contractors to construct roads in the state.
Singh undertook the exercise to ensure that the engineers of his department did not collude with private contractors and use inferior quality material in construction of roads in the state. The laboratory was established in the garage of his residence and members of his personal staff were trained by two PWD engineers to check the quality of materials used in road construction.
Singh decided to establish the laboratory after he received several complaints that the engineers, who were deputed to check the quality of roads, were colluding with the private contractors and giving them certificates of good work despite the quality of the material being of poor quality.
In furtherance of this exercise, Singh would often collect samples from the roads constructed in different parts of the state during his official tours, so that the quality of the roads even in remote areas of the state could be tested at his laboratory. As a result, the PWD engineers, who earlier used to approve bad quality roads in connivance with the officials working in government-approved quality-checking laboratories, started venturing out in the field to ensure that the private contractors adhered to the prescribed quality while constructing roads.
Singh had in March this year alleged that the state government staff had demanded bribe from him for reimbursing his hospital bills. Earlier this week, after being told that he won’t be given a BJP ticket this time, Singh broke down in front of everyone. After this, state Congress president Kamal Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh contacted him and offered him a ticket.