Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Udaipur on Tuesday. (Source: Rohit Jain Paras) Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Udaipur on Tuesday. (Source: Rohit Jain Paras)

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that his government believes in completing what it starts, unlike the previous dispensation, and that it is made up of people “from a different kind of mitti (clay)”. Modi e-inaugurated 12 completed national highway (NH) projects in Rajasthan worth Rs 5,610 crore and conducted e-Bhumi Poojan for 11 other NH projects amounting to Rs 9,490 crore in Udaipur.

He said the biggest challenge before the government today is putting an end to the “games” of announcing sops around election time, and instead ensure that they are completed. “Announcing schemes, making all sorts of promises (and) grabbing big headlines during elections…the country has closely seen these games for years,” he said. “The biggest challenge before us today is to put an end to these old evils. Itni taakat lagti hai, itni taakat lagti hai, jiski aap kalpana nahi kar sakte (you cannot imagine how much strength is required to put that into effect).”

Rajasthan goes to the polls later next year.

The Prime Minister said: “Agar koi dheela-dhaala insaan hota, toh shayad usko (economy) dekhte hi dar jaata, lekin hum zara alag mitti ke bane huay hain (a weak person would perhaps have been intimidated, but we are made from a different kind of clay) — we have a habit of choosing our challenges and challenging our challenges.”

Referring to former Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot’s remarks that it is “laughable” the BJP-led NDA is trying to take credit by laying foundation of projects started by the Congress-led government again, Modi brought up the issue of the six-lane bridge across Chambal river at Kota. which was inaugurated today. He said, “A small bridge (work for which started) in 2006, worth Rs 300 crore, could have been built in a year or two. But 11 years have passed, (while) today we are inaugurating works worth Rs 5,610 crore, which we envisioned in 2014 and completed within three years.”

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who accompanied Modi, said, “It pained me…. I was surprised to hear the former chief minister’s statement. The project was closed. Its bhumi poojan took place under the Congress government, the work order for the cable bridge was given in 2006, but there was a mishap and the contractor was planning to flee.”

Gadkari said that with the bridge now completed, the East-West corridor stands completed. Built at a cost of Rs 278 crore, this bridge will enable heavy vehicles to bypass Kota city, he said.

Prime Minister Modi said, “When a programme is delayed, laying foundation stones may win you an election or two but the cost and the losses keep rising. Efforts to rescue several such schemes from ground consumes so much of my energy…” He said the NDA government could have gone on sporadically unveiling the bunch of projects that were launched today and reaped benefits for the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, “but we work within time-frames”.

Recalling former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Golden Quadrilateral project, Modi said roads being constructed in Rajasthan at a cost of over Rs 9,000 crore will help farmers immensely, as any delay in transporting farm produce leads to losses for the farmers.

‘People expected flood aid announcement’

Udaipur: Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot on Tuesday said it was “unfortunate” that people of the state, who were expecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce financial aid in view of floods, were let down.

“The people of the state were expecting the Prime Minister to announce aid in view of floods, like the Centre had announced in six other states, but it is unfortunate that no such relief was announced for Rajasthan. Over 70 farmers across the state have committed suicide due to debt or loss of crop, but the state government failed to seek debt waiver,” Pilot said in a statement. ENS

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