PIL against MoS status to religious leaders, HC seeks reply from MP govt

The Madhya Pradesh High Court today sought the state government's response on a public interest litigation (PIL) against the granting of Minister of State (MoS) status to five religious leaders.

Justices PK Jaiswal and SK Awasthi of the high court's Indore bench issued a notice to the state government on the plea by a local resident asking it to furnish a response within three weeks.

The PIL, demanding the withdrawal of MoS status given to these religious leaders, was filed by Rambahadur Verma who claimed that the expenditure on facilities provided to the five would ultimately have to be borne by taxpayers.

The state government had, on March 31, constituted a special committee to conduct public awareness campaigns about plantation, water conservation and sanitation on the banks of river Narmada.

On April 3, it had granted five members of this committee- Narmadanand Maharaj, Hariharanand Maharaj, Bhaiyyu Maharaj, Computer Baba and Yogendra Mahant- MoS status.