Other States - Madhya Pradesh   

Arun Jaitley hits out at Digvijay Govt.

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL MAY 25. The Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, today lashed out at the Digvijay Singh- led Government asserting that Madhya Pradesh has been pushed further backward in all sectors, including the primary and social sectors, during the last one decade.

Mr. Jaitley, who arrived here to attend the valedictory session of the BJP's media workshop, was addressing newsmen here. He also circulated copies of the reply he had sent to the Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, in response to his earlier letter contradicting the charge that Madhya Pradesh was trailing far behind most other large States in the country.

In his letter, Mr. Jaitley had emphasised that the conclusions that have been drawn with regard to the level of development in Madhya Pradesh by various studies conducted at the national and international level are absolutely valid. The Chief Minister is only expressing his frustration by trying to contradict these studies.

Mr. Jaitley said the study conducted by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, India Today Survey, the Planning Commission's human development report and the UNDP have all ranked Madhya Pradesh very poorly in comparison with other States.

He said statistics forms the basis of all planning. How can we ignore the extremely adverse situation prevailing in Madhya Pradesh on the power, road, education, health and agriculture fronts, he quipped adding in a State where the economy is predominantly agriculture based, the declining trend with regard to agriculture only reflects growing poverty.

Lashing out at the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Jaitley said that she has been giving false statements to project that the situation was deteriorating when it comes to employment generation and agriculture production.

On the contrary, he gave credit to the Central Government saying it had succeeded in building massive stocks of foodgrains and creating one crore jobs annually.

When the Congress was in power, the country was confronted with food shortage and the ration system had to be introduced, whereas now we have been able to export Rs. 20,000 crores worth of foodgrains, Mr. Jaitley said. During the previous Congress regimes, the textile units were also facing closure, he said adding that the whole world now recognises India's prominent position in the textile sector

Mr. Jaitley said that by hooting out the Chief Minister at Ms. Sonia's recent rally at Dabra near Gwalior, the Congressmen have demonstrated that even they want a change of leadership in Madhya Pradesh.

People's unprecedented support to the BJP sponsored State-wide bandh on the electricity issue should be an eye opener for those at the helm of affairs in the State, he pointed out.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Arun Jaitley hits out at Digvijay Govt.
• `Arjun Singh's remarks inappropriate'

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu