GEHLOT ACCUSES SHEKHAWAT OF INCITING THE MP GOVT TO STOP THE ERCP PROJECT

Jaipur: CM Ashok Gehlot has once again raised the issue of declaring the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) as a national project regarding PM Modi’s visit to Ajmer. Without naming Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Gehlot accused him of inciting the MP government to stop the ERCP project.

Gehlot while talking to the media after inaugurating the new building of the Home Guard Directorate in Jaipur said, “I pray to God PM will go to that place, maybe he will remember his promises and maybe make an announcement on that day. He should announce that there is no politics in this. ERCP is the plan of his govt’s time, this plan will have to be taken forward. PM had stopped the work of the refinery so that his credit could not be given to the Congress. This is his own project which we are taking forward. We kept a budget of Rs 9,000 crore. We are taking his work forward. Still they are not declaring ERCP as a national project.”

Gehlot further added, “Firstly, there is only one Jal Shakti Minister who has no interest at all. On whose advice does the PM go? There is no point in what he said on ERCP in Dausa. I want, if there is any problem on ERCP, then call all of us and talk. Talk to Madhya Pradesh, talk to Rajasthan, find one or the other solution. We know that a meeting was held here in 2005, when the CMs of Rajasthan and MP were present. In that meeting, approval was given to MP to build a dam.”

Gehlot said that on the basis of the agreement made in the meeting held in 2005, Madhya Pradesh is working, giving NOC to them, you are building big dams. “When it was our turn, we were refused. I think Madhya Pradesh was deliberately made to object. Ever since we started working on this scheme, they started objecting. I think the Jal Shakti Minister must have asked Madhya Pradesh to object. That’s why Madhya Pradesh raised the issue which should not have been raised. This is a scheme for drinking and irrigation water, how many people would have benefited from it.”