All 25 BJP Lok Sabha members from Rajasthan failed to get state any benefits, says CM Ashok Gehlot

Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the state which sent the BJP leaders to Lok Sabha from all the 25 seats in the 2019 General elections failed to get any mega benefit for the state from the Union budget. There are 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state and all the 25 seats were won by the BJP, but the BJP members of Lok Sabha from the state failed to get the ambitious Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ECPR), the status of a national project. Gehlot said all the 25 BJPs brought disappointment to the state as they could not impress upon the Union government on the utility and benefits of the Eastern Rajasthan canal project.

Gehlot said the Union budget is silent on the suggested 90:10 ratio for expenditures on attaining the objectives of the Jal Jeevan Mission. Gehlot had suggested that the Union government should spend 90 per cent on the Jal Jeevan project as the states were not capable of funding the project from their own resources.

Gehlot said that ever since the NDA government came in power, the fiscal deficit has been increasing significantly. The fiscal deficit has doubled in the past seven years and after the current budget announcements, the deficit would grow further.

The Union budget would fill the coffers of the rich and make the rich richer still, while there is no solid provision for the poor, farmers and labourers, he added.

The budget has made no announcement on the various pleas made by the state to the Centre to give Rajasthan special status in light of the fact that a very large area of the state is sandy and there is a huge shortage of drinking water with just one perennial river in the state.

Gehlot has been trying to persuade the Centre to give the national project status to the state’s ambitious East Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) to help provide drinking and irrigational water to the people of the desert state. The Chief Minister has raised the issue again and again and also during a meeting with the Niti Aayog with the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual presentation.

Gehlot reminded the Prime Minister during a virtual meeting, ”while addressing a rally in Jaipur on July 7, 2018, and also in Ajmer on October 6, 2018, you had promised to declare the East Rajasthan Canal Project a national project of importance. But the same has not been executed."

The Chief Minister told the Prime Minister in the virtual meeting that Rajasthan has 10 per cent of the country’s land, while only one per cent of the country’s water is available in the state.

Rajasthan is a desert region, there is also a shortage of surface and groundwater. Due to the large distance between the village hamlets as well as the heterogeneous geographical conditions, the cost of providing drinking water from house to house is much higher than in other states. In view of this, the Central government like the Hill states, should also provide assistance under 90:10 provision (that is 90 per cent help from the Centre and 10 per cent help from the state) in the Jal Jeevan Mission to the state.

The ERCP proposes to provide drinking water to 13 districts of Rajasthan and provide irrigation water for 2.8 lakh hectares of land through 26 different large and medium projects. Within the Chambal basin, during the rainy season Kunnu, Sui, Parbati, Kalisindh, Mez, and Chakhan sub-basins also have surplus water while rivers like Banas, Banganaga and Gambhir are basins in deficit yield. Under this scheme, the surplus water will be carried to all such basins that are deficit basins.

In a recent letter to Jal Shakti Ministry, the Water Resources department of Rajasthan pointed out that the status of national project has been given to 16 projects in other states, but no project in Rajasthan has been given this status. In the project with the national project status of the funding pattern is 90:10 but in ERCP, 60% funding will be borne by the Centre and 40 per cent by the state, said a senior department official.

With the cost of Rs 40,000 crore, ERCP proposes drinking water to 13 districts of Rajasthan and provide irrigation water for 2.8 lakh hectares of land through 26 different large and medium projects. Under the project, the surplus water in the sub-basins of Kunnu, Kul, Parvati, Kalisindh and Mej rivers received during the monsoon will be carried to the sub-basin of Banas, Morel, Banganga, Gambhir and Parbati rivers.

The project would ensure availability of sufficient water for drinking and irrigation till the year 2051 in Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli, Bharatpur and Dholpur districts.

Pradesh Congress president, Govind Singh Dotasara termed the budget directionless and disappointing for the youths.

Former Deputy Chief Minister, Sachin Pilot aptly described the budget as with inflation-without jobs. He said the NDA government which came to power by deceiving the youth and promising them jobs has left the youth frustrated and disappointed.

Pilot said there was not a word in the Union budget for the poor, youth and unemployed. A vision of 25 years has been presented in the name of 75 years of Independence and there is no account of announcements of the last seven years including three years of the tenure of the NDA government.