Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched a 130-MW solar power plant at Bhagwanpur in Neemuch, about 400 km from here, on Wednesday. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was present.
The Welspun Solar MP project, the largest solar power plant in India set up at a cost of Rs. 1,100 crore on 305 hectares of land, will supply power at Rs. 8.05 a kWh.
Calling it a saffron revolution, Mr. Modi said: “We have already seen the green and the white revolutions; soon, we are going to see a saffron revolution in the country ... The sun was there even during the time when there was a Congress Chief Minister. But the Congress never thought of using it to develop solar energy, and it was Chouhan who used it for energy production.”
Hitting out at Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, he said, “During his regime [as Chief Minister], many power plants were closed down because of which we have been pushed into the dark ages.”
Mr. Chouhan alleged that the Centre was cheating Madhya Pradesh. “Wait for Narendra Modi to become Prime Minister and farmers will get their due,” he said.
The inauguration of the plant comes a day after the former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani launched the linking of the Narmada and the Kshipra rivers in Ujjain. Mr. Modi’s absence from the programme and publicity materials raised questions within party circles. The exclusion of Satyanarayan Jatiya, Rajya Sabha member, who was instrumental in getting the waters of the Narmada to Malwa, also raised eyebrows.
In the past two days, the State has seen a flurry of inaugurations of projects, including the opening of the Betul-Nagpur link in Chhindwara on Tuesday by Union Ministers Kamal Nath and Oscar Fernandes and flagging off an express train from Gwalior to Pune by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday.
