'Rehabilitation of dam oustees to be completed soon'

New Delhi, June 1: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has said rehabilitation of the Sardar Sarovar Dam oustees has been going on in the state for the last three months and would be completed within the timeframe set by the Supreme Court.

Of the 86 sites identified, rehabilitation of the displaced has been completed in 75 while work is still on in 11 of them, which would be completed in 10 to 15 days, the Chief Minister said in an exclusive interview to UNI here.

Denying media reports that only a small number of the outstees were being rehabilitated by the state government, he said, ''It is totally wrong to say so. Rehabilitation package has been distributed to all.'' He admitted that there might be some shortcomings in the rehabilitation work, but these were being removed. He is personally supervising the rehabilitation work, he added.

Mr Chauhan said a climate of investment is building up in Madhya Pradesh with the State having already attracted an investment of Rs 20,000 crores. This includes investment by NRI Swaraj Paul.

He said industrial development of the State had almost come to a halt until he took over as Chief Minister and framed a new industrial policy. Instead of single window concept he introduced a ''single table concept'' for clearance of proposals to set up industries in the state. He had set up a Project Implementation Board which promptly clears the proposals.

Stating that his Government was according the highest priority to building infrastructure and ensuring proper power and water supply to the State, the Chief Minister claimed that Madhya Pradesh would become one of the best states in the country in terms of road infrastructure in the next two years.

Realising that infrastructure was necessary for the development of the state, the focus now was on building roads fast. Roads extending to 17000 km had already been built in two years while 25000 to 30,000 km-long roads were being constructed.

Appreciating the good work done in rural road building by the State, the Centre had approved a package of Rs 1800 crores for the State.

A Rural Road Development Corporation had been constituted, through which good quality roads on a par with National Highways, were being constructed.

The Chief Minister said the state had been reeling under power shortage for many years, but now work was going on in full swing to generate more thermal and hydel power. An extra capacity of 1700 MW had been generated. In the next two and a half years, power generation was going to be increased by 3600 MW, making the state self-sufficient in power, he added.

Of this, 500 MW each would be generated by Birsinghpur and Omkareshwar, 400 MW by Bansagar, 210 by Chachai, 200 MW from Manikheda and 115 MW from Sardar Sarovar by 2007.

The State would be able to sell electricity to other states in the coming monsoon, the Chief Minister claimed.

As far as water needs of the state are concerned, work on irrigation schemes was going on at a fast pace to increase irrigation capacity of the State. This year the capacity was going to be increased to 1.47 lakh hectares. Work was on to irrigate 8 lakh hectares of land.

Asked about the financial position of the State,the Chief Minister said there was no overdraft on the state. It was for the first time that a surplus budget had been presented and capital accumulation increased to Rs 9000 crores.

He felt the Centre should give more financial assistance to Madhya Pradesh for implementing various projects. He rued that the Centre was not giving coal royalty to the State on ad valerom basis.

Denying that the BJP-ruled states, including Madhya Pradesh, were taking political advantage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and not paying the prescribed minimum wages, the Chief Minister said it was provided in the NREGA that the states could change the name of the scheme. His state was paying the minimum wages to the workers under the scheme, he insisted.

About the naxalite problem in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Chauhan said the situation was under control. The only district affected by the problem was Balaghat but this year no major incident involving naxalites had taken place there.

Asked if expelled BJP leader Uma Bharati posed a threat to the stability of his Government in view of her sizeable following, the Chief Minister said he would not like to talk about individuals as his main concern was development of the State. ''The people of the State have to be linked with development,'' he said, adding that development has to be undertaken as a movement.

UNI