In a letter to Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan on Thursday, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh announced that Rs. 1182 crores had been sanctioned by his ministry (MRD) for building 1941 km of roads and bridges under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Mr. Chouhan has regularly accused the union government of discrimination and impeding Madhya Pradesh’s growth.
Mr. Ramesh, in his letter — a copy of which is with The Hindu — recounted the grants to the state of more than Rs. 3,600 crores under the PMGSY since 2011 and reminded the CM that detailed project reports for the remaining roads is due by January, next year.
He added, “For better inspection of the state’s works and reducing the heavy burden of executives, the equitable distribution of work between Project Implementation Units (PIUs) is pending. It is also necessary for the state to fully utilise the State Quality Monitors (auditors) to certify the quality of the roads.”
The PMGSY roads throughout the state stand in stark contrast to several pot-hole ridden and accident prone state and national highways, which MRD sources attribute to the constant auditing. Narsinghpur has got the bulk of the largesse with 111.26 km of roads. It falls under Hoshangabad Lok Sabha seat, represented by the Congress’ Rao Uday Pratap Singh who recently defected to the BJP.
Mr. Chouhan told this paper on Friday that the alleged discrimination was “not in all cases and not with all [central] ministers”. He added, “Our achievements have been recognised by the Centre from time to time and we cannot be ungrateful.”
Refusing to go into the specific grievances, Mr. Chouhan said, “At the same time there are areas in which we feel we are discriminated against. We hope for a course correction in those matters too.”
Chouhan resigns, cabinet forms tomorrow
CM Shivraj Chouhan vacated the Vidisha assembly seat today by submitting his resignation to Principal Secretary (Vidhan Sabha) Rajkumar Pande. He was elected from both the seats he contested — Budhni which he already held and Vidisha, previously held by former minister Mr. Raghavji.
On Thursday, Mr. Chouhan visited Vidisha to chart out future development in the district. He said, “While I am the MLA of Budhni, I will be Vidisha’s CM.” The first batch of new ministers is expected to be sworn in by Governor Ram Naresh Yadav on Saturday. Mr. Chouhan also met with former CMs Digvijaya Singh of the Congress and Kailash Joshi of the BJP on Friday.
