Rajasthan Election 2018: BJP cleared more schemes than Congress in 5 yrs: Mahesh Sharma

Union minister Mahesh Sharma said on Thursday that both central and state governments have expeditiously and transparently implemented developmental schemes in the last five years, and accused the Congress for indulging in what he termed was “vulture politics”.

He said the Rajasthan government has taken various labour reforms to boost investment and industrial production besides creating job opportunities in the state.

“Rajasthan is progressing as fast as a developing state by shedding away the BIMARU tag,” Sharma said.

He said the BJP is a cadre-based party with its policies, leadership and intention “very clear”. “The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to take the country and the state on the development path rising above the religion and caste barriers,” the minister said.

He also took a jibe at the Congress, which, he said, “can’t even decide its chief ministerial candidate whereas the BJP has declared names of 162 candidates” for the assembly elections in Rajasthan, scheduled for December 7.

“Idhar se kuchh bach jayega toh vulture politics kiya jayega. Agar inhone diya phir dekhenge humey kisko dena hai. (If anything is left, then vulture politics will set in. If one party gives (tickets), then we will see whom should be give (the ticket) to),” Sharma said, seemingly making claims about the way tickets are distributed in the Congress.

He said the grand old party suffers from this “negative mindset”. “They don’t know where their leadership is headed. Their leadership is dwarfed in front of our PM Narendra Modi.”

He said that in one year, the environment ministry has “completed more projects than were cleared in the last 70 years”. “The environment ministry has cleared projects worth Rs 9.34 lakh cr in one year,” he said, and claimed that during the Congress rule, “it would take 600 days to clear files” which has “now been reduced to 90 days and our target is to bring it down to 60 days”.

Sharma indirectly referred to former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan over the allegations that “tax” had been paid to political leaders before giving environmental clearances.

“Ek tax lagta tha paryavaran mantralaya mei, main naam lena nahi chahunga. Rs 9.34 lakh crore par 1% lagao toh Rs 9,000 crore aur 2% lagao toh Rs 18,000 crore ka tax lagta hai.. is tax ke naam se yeh mantralay badnaam tha,” he alleged.

He said the BJP government has spent Rs 139 crore on country’s tourism spots whereas the previous Congress government spent merely 36 crore in five years.

On the mining ban in the state by the Supreme Court, which has brought construction activity to a standstill and rendered lakhs of labourers jobless, Sharma said the ministry is trying to resolve the issue. “We are trying to find a win-win situation to the issue of pollution caused by bajari and damage to the environment caused by mining activity,” he said.