JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has announced that the ERCP (Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project) will be completed despite the Centre stopping work and not giving it the status of a ‘national project’. The project will provide water to people of 13 districts, but it has been caught up in Centre-state politics. It had taken a new turn a few days ago, after the Centre’s directive to stop work in view of “lack of consent” by Madhya Pradesh.
The issue of declaring it a national project was echoed in the meeting of Congress leaders on Wednesday. Gehlot, AICC state in-charge Ajay Maken and state party president Govind Dotasra addressed the gathering, comprising over 2,000 representative from the affected districts.
Gehlot said he is not going to stop the ERCP. “I have kept Rs 9,600 crore for this. The Union Jal Shakti Ministry has told the chief secretary to stop the work. Water is a state subject. I am not going to turn it off.” The blueprint for ERCP, estimated to cost over Rs 40,000 crore, was drawn by the former BJP government and it even received PM Narendra Modi’s nod. But in 2018, when Congress replaced BJP, the project got derailed.
Jal Shakti minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is refusing to make any promise. He recently asked the state government to stop the ERCP work until the inter-state issues get resolved. The BJP also says Gehlot is playing politics on ERCP to hide his failure in governance, and that an all-party meeting should discuss the project.