Air pollution from coal ash, the felling of trees in Hasdeo forest, and a lack of health and education facilities are among the issues at the forefront as the tribal-majority Korba Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh gets set to go to the polls on May 7.
Korba is one of two seats the Congress won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and sitting MP Jyotsna Mahant is seeking to defend her seat against Saroj Pandey, one of the national vice presidents of the BJP.
Mahant has a family with strong political credentials, with her husband Charan Das Mahant being a three-time MP, and his father Bisahu Das Mahant having been a long-serving MLA.
The BJP’s Pandey, however, is seen as a strong contender. She has more political experience than Mahant, having served as a mayor, an MLA and an MP in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have both campaigned in the constituency.
At his rally there, Shah promised that the BJP would end Naxalism in Chhattisgarh, asserted that the party would not end reservation, and highlighted the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the abrogation of J&K’s special status under Article 370.
Priyanka promised that the Congress would “level the land destroyed due to cast mining and resettle people”, establish railway connectivity to the region, and “try to give you four times more compensation as compared to the market rate for land acquisition”.
The Indian Express found that there were at least 400 people in the constituency who have not received proper rehabilitation, compensation, or jobs after their land was acquired for mining and other development activities. Cases related to this are also pending in court.
An issue from Korba that has gained national attention is tree cutting in Hasdeo forest, which is known as the ‘lungs of Chhattisgarh’. It resulted in a major protest earlier this year led by tribal communities. Congress leaders had also joined the protest and hit out against the government of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai.
Other complaints that residents across the constituency have include poor railway connectivity and poor quality of education. Priya Mahant (21), a business management student, said, “Many students like me shifted base to Raipur from Korba due to poor railway connectivity and lack of quality education. Trains keep getting cancelled or are delayed for several hours, which affected my studies,” she said.
BJP’s Pandey said the issue of railway connectivity would be solved in the next six months and that an amount of over Rs 6,700 crore had been spent to improve connectivity. She also said that building a college for mining-related courses and increasing the quality of education were among her priorities.
Another resident, Devendra Gupta, brought up the issue of air pollution. “Decades of mining has ravaged Korba. Several tonnes of coal ash are dumped in several coal ash dams here… On many occasions it is dumped on the roads. This leads to massive air pollution, and now it has also started entering our water streams, which will lead to severe health issues,” he said.
Congress’s Mahant agreed that it was a major issue, and said that the ash should be disposed of properly and could even be “used as fillers to make roads and can also be used to make bricks”.
“New mines should not be opened until pending issues of existing mines are resolved. We will not allow them to cut any more trees and we want to plant more trees to curb pollution. They chopped 15,000 trees overnight in Hasdeo, including Sal trees which take several years to grow. They are helping Adani. Can’t our Prime Minister think beyond Adani and Ambani and have any other way to deal with this issue?” Mahant said.
Pandey criticised Mahant, saying that she had been silent when trees were cut in Hasdeo under the previous Congress government in the state. She also said Mahant did not raise her voice when the funds for the District Mineral Foundation were allegedly misused.
The BJP candidate said freeing Korba from air pollution and providing good health facilities were a priority for her.