Jaipur: Taking dig at Rajasthan government for using the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) as an election weapon and Jan Jagran Yatra being launched from Baran district, Rajasthan Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rajendra Rathore said that in order to stall the plan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath are guilty.
He said that the state government is claiming to complete this project in the year 2051 and has announced to spend Rs 37,000 crore but after so far no work has been done in the name of this scheme.
He said that Chief Minister of Rajasthan is not the Chief Minister but the “Minister of Announcement.”
“For ERCP, the Chief Minister talked about creating an ERCP Corporation and giving Rs 13,000 crores, but till now not even a single penny has been spent,” Rathore said while addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters.
He said that Kamal Nath was the first to object to giving NOC to Rajasthan, after which Gehlot announced to start the project at the state’s expense and till now nothing has happened except announcements.
Rathore said that the law and order situation in the state is bad and in the last six months, only 25 per cent of the cases have been taken to the court after investigation.
Rathore said that in the last six months, 1.25 lakh cases were registered in the state, out of which challans have been presented in only 33000 cases.
“In such a situation, only 25 per cent of the cases in the state have been taken to court after investigation. Around 17 women are being raped every day in the state and daughters are being auctioned in many districts of the state,” he said.
He said that when the Chief Minister is working on this scheme, then why Jan Jagran Yatra is being taken out. He said that Rajasthan has reached a state of economic emergency in the last five years.
“The debt in the state has increased and the Gehlot government is taking a loan of Rs 14,000 crore for the quarter from October to December,” he said.
Rathod also accused the state government of cheating the common people in the name of schemes. “The government has taken Rs 1,000 crore from Housing Board, Rs 1,000 crore from RIICO and Rs 1,500 crore from RTDC to fulfill its political interests and the Chief Minister has done it only to enhance his image. Around Rs 2,000 crores were distributed among the common people in the design box,” he said.
‘Design Box’ is a PR consultancy for the Rajasthan government.
–IANS