Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has taken a strong stance against Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat regarding the ERCP (Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project) scheme. The Chief Minister, speaking at the foundation stone laying and inauguration ceremony of development projects in Jaipur’s Ramnivas Bagh on Thursday, accused Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of undermining the ERCP by not declaring it a national project.
Gehlot stated, “The Prime Minister, despite his promise, has not declared the ERCP as a national project. Rajasthan has won 25 Lok Sabha seats, can’t even one project be declared as a national project? This minister, our MP from Jodhpur, is incapable. He can’t get even one project declared as a national project. He keeps making excuses and confusing people. What are the 25 MPs doing? If the people ask them what they are doing, they don’t have an answer.”
Gehlot also discussed the negative impact of changing governments. He said, “When governments change, it causes significant setbacks that are hard to imagine. Now is the time to think about how much damage changing governments can do. Our refinery was originally priced at Rs 38,000 crores, but the cost has now risen to Rs 72,000 crores. You can imagine whose loss this is – it’s the common people’s money. Even though the government has changed, many projects that were discontinued are now being revived. The Hardev Joshi Journalism University was closed down, and the Ambedkar Law University was closed down.”
The Chief Minister also aimed at PM Modi and said, “The PM made a promise to consider the ERCP positively and with a constructive view, despite it being a scheme from Vasundhara Raje’s time. But we did not abandon it; we have taken that scheme forward.”
Gehlot criticized the central government, saying, “Constitutional norms are being violated in the country. The ED is working under the pressure of income tax raids. The ED is intruding into people’s homes, causing harassment. Even though we tried using the ED in Rajasthan, it failed. Newspapers are filled with reports of ED raids, silver being found somewhere, gold somewhere else, and money elsewhere. Who is responsible for this? Did the government catch the middlemen? We have to find these brokers. You can imagine where democracy is heading. We also need to confront this.”
