‘Would have welcomed’: CM Gehlot reminds PM Modi of his ERCP promise
CM Gehlot said people would have welcomed his move if PM Modi had fulfilled the promise from Dausa address.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he “missed a better chance today”. Recalling PM Modi's earlier announcement ahead of assembly election to give the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) a national status, CM Gehlot said people would have welcomed his move if he had fulfilled the promise.
“You (PM Modi) missed a better chance today. If you had fulfilled your promise to give ERCP a national status today, people in the state would have welcomed it. Dausa is also included among the 13 ERCP districts,” he said in a letter to PM Modi.
Also read: PM Modi sounds poll bugle in Rajasthan, takes dig at CM Gehlot over budget gaffe
The Prime Minister earlier criticised the Congress-led Rajasthan government during a public address in Dausa amid the inauguration of 246-km long Delhi-Lalsot-Dausa section of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway along with laying the foundation stone of several road projects. He took a dig at CM Gehlot for reading the previous year's budget in this year's session in the assembly.
“People know how they (Congress) are running the state and everyone knows what happened in the recent budget…If Rajasthan had got the power of the double engine govt, it would have developed more. Congress does not work nor they let others work,” he said.
Also read: Gehlot reads old budget for seven minutes, Oppn claims leak
Responding to his jibe, CM Gehlot alleged that PM Modi is trying to mislead people of Rajasthan and laid down the key points of this year's state budget in his letter. A budgetary allocation of around ₹13,000 crore for the ERCP is also mentioned in the budget.
Approved in 2017, the ERCP aimed at harvesting surplus water in Chambal river and its tributaries during rainy season to use it in water-scarce south-eastern Rajasthan. The water resources department of the state said Rajasthan covers 10.4 of the country, however, it only hold 1.16% of the country's surface water and 1.72% of the groundwater.
