Madhya Pradesh: Atal’s dream of river interlinking to take shape, says CM
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday said that he strived hard to deliver by removing hurdles in the implementation of some long pending vital projects such as interlinking of rivers during his maiden year in the office.
Chief minister Mr Yadav who completes one year in the office on Friday said that the dream of former late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would be realized when the foundation stone for the Ken-Betwa interlinking project would be laid by PM Narendra Modi in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh on December 25.
He said that the ambitious multi-purpose project which is billed to bring immense benefits to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh was conceived during the tenure of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
But the project could not make any headway due to the issues such as forest clearance and lack of coordination among the government departments concerned, he said.
“After I became chief minister, I focused on the issue and removed all the bottlenecks in seeing the project light of the day”, he said.
Similarly, the Parbati- KaliSindh- Chambal interlinking project faced delay due to the lack of support by the former Congress government in Rajasthan.
After BJP came to power in Rajasthan, all the hurdles in the clearance of the project have been removed by the two BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The chief minister admitted that the Ladli Behna Yojana, the flagship scheme of the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government providing a monthly incentive of Rs 1,000 to the women beneficiaries of the scheme, has put pressure on the state exchequer.
A staggering amount of Rs 19212 crore has so far been released to 1.29 crore women beneficiaries under the scheme.
But the state government is exploring new avenues to generate additional revenues to support all the welfare schemes including the Ladli Behna Yojana, he added.
“No welfare scheme in the state will be discontinued”, he said.
He further said that his government has undertaken several measures to improve the health facilities in the state.
One of the significant steps taken by his government in this direction was to merge the two departments of health and medical education, he said.
Mr Yadav said that he coined a new concept of inclusive industrialization in the state by conducting regional industry conclaves in some cities to woo investment in these regions.
