Irrigation project named after Vajpayee

Bhopal, Jul 19: The multipurpose Madikheda project, named after former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the Kalisindh river in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district was formally inaugurated amid protest over changing its name proposed earlier after martyr freedom fighter Tatya Tope.

During the Janata Party regime three decades ago, the foundation stone of the project, named after 1857 hero Tatya Tope, was laid in the presence of then Chief Minister late Virendra Kumar Sakhlecha and veteran BJP leader late Vljaya Raje Scindia.

The project got delayed with change of governments and it was completed recently with cost escalating to Rs 608 crore. Besides generating 60 megawatt electricity from three units of 20 MW each, the project in Gwalior-Chambal region will provide irrigation facility in 1.62 lakh hectare area in 453 villages spread over Shivpuri, Datia, Gwalior and Bhind districts.

While dedicating the ''Atal Sagar Project'' to the people yesterday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the state government had made untiring efforts to complete the project in the last four years. The state's power generation capacity has also gone up by 2982 megawatt.

Freedom fighters and social workers of the region staged protest against the BJP government for naming the project after the former prime minister instead of retaining its name after martyr Tatya Tope.

UNI