KHAJURAHO: Attacking the Congress for not acknowledging the vision and contribution of BR Ambedkar in developing water resources, harnessing jal shakti and construction of dams, PM Narendra Modi Wednesday said no one knows about his work since the “truth was suppressed to give credit to just one person while the real idol (Ambedkar) was forgotten.”
Modi was addressing Bundelkhand farmers and BJP workers here Wednesday after laying the foundation stone for the Ken-Betwa national river linking project, to mark the birth centenary of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee whose govt first planned the Ken-Betwa river linking 23 years ago.
The project will bring 8.11 lakh hectare land under irrigation in 10 districts in the parched Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh while the 221-km-long Ken-Betwa canal will irrigate 59,000 hectares of agricultural land in Uttar Pradesh and stabilise water supply over 1.92 hectares in the state’s Mahoba, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Banda districts.
“After Independence, who worked for jal shakti and water resources? No one knows,” PM Modi said, adding, “If one person is to be credited for his work on India’s jal shakti, water resources and construction of dams, it is Babasaheb Ambedkar. Not only did the Congress not give him any recognition for it, they did not even let people know.”
He said it was Ambedkar’s vision behind the construction of mega dams in the country and the creation of the Central Water Commission.
Modi said when his govt was formed in 2014, there were more than a hundred incomplete irrigation projects in the country. “In the past, Congress govts just made announcements, cut ribbons, lit lamps and got photographs printed in newspapers. Their objective was just that and people never benefitted,” Modi said.
“After taking charge of the Prime Minister’s office, I reviewed past projects and I was amazed. Not an iota of work was done on projects where foundation stones were laid 35 to 40 years ago. Congress govts did not have either the intention or the seriousness to implement these projects,” he said.
“After seven decades, there are still disputes between states over water. When the Congress governed everything from panchayats to Parliament, they could have resolved these disputes easily. But its intention was bad and hence did not make concrete efforts,” Modi said.
PM recalled that after the Vajpayee govt was formed, a serious attempt was made to resolve water problems. “But after 2004, as soon as the his govt was not governing anymore, all those schemes and dreams were discarded by the Congress,” he said.
Wherever there is Congress, there cannot be governance,” the PM maintained. “People of Bundelkhand have suffered because of this. Generation by generation, farmers and women of Bundelkhand have struggled for every drop of water. And Congress did not think of a permanent solution to the crisis,” he said.
Modi asserted that Madhya Pradesh has become the first state where two river linking projects have started -the Parvati-Kali Sindh-Chambal linking project and the Ken-Betwa project.
Modi said that he chalked-out the Ken-Betwa project of Rs 45,000 crore and encouraged BJP govts of both MP and UP.
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