Had the previous regimes in Madhya Pradesh taken up construction and development works of permanent nature for Simhastha fairs since 1956, there would have been no need to spend Rs 3000 crore this time in Ujjain.
Minister of state for urban development and environment Lal Singh Arya said this in the state assembly here on Wednesday while replying to a debate on the demands for grants of urban administration, environment and expenditure related to Simhastha.
Arya said this time the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a visionary step by spending Rs 3000 crore to ensure development and construction works that were permanent in nature.
“Under the directions of the chief minister, calculations were made that in the next Simhastha, the state government would have to spend Rs 10,000 crore for ensuring development and construction works. This time, we are spending over Rs 3000 crore so that we don’t have to spend again on developing the same infrastructure in the next Simhastha,” he said.
Arya said since the formation of Madhya Pradesh, it had been the Congress that had been in power in the state for most of the time. He said had the party provided the basic services to the people then, the state government would have achieved the dream of golden Madhya Pradesh by now. “Despite the fact the state government had to spend a lot on providing relief to the farmers whose crops were being damaged by rain and hailstorm for last three years, the government has not ignored the civic bodies in the state,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Arya said since the formation of Madhya Pradesh, it had been the Congress that had been in power in the state for most of the time. He said had the party provided the basic services to the people then, the state government would have achieved the dream of golden Madhya Pradesh by now. “Despite the fact the state government had to spend a lot on providing relief to the farmers whose crops were being damaged by rain and hailstorm for last three years, the government has not ignored the civic bodies in the state,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Arya said that to address the issues of urban transport in the long run, work on metro rail project was in progress. He said the detailed project reports (DPRs) of metro rail projects for Bhopal and Indore had been sent to the Central government. “The feasibility survey for metro rail projects in Jabalpur and Gwalior has also been taken up”, he said.
Bahujan Samaj Party’s Sheel Tyagi said smart city projects would widen the gulf between the rich and the poor, unless the government creates housing facilities for the slum dwellers. Congress’s Girish Bhandari alleged there was massive corruption in the civic bodies in the procurement of the various goods for daily use. Independent MLA Dinesh Rai said the street lights in his area were not working. Congress’ Fundheylal Singh demanded that the state should send a team of experts to Amarkantak, the source of Narmada river for its development