The Madhya Pradesh chief minister and the state BJP president Dr. Mohan Yadav slammed Congress leader Jairam Ramesh for labelling the linking of the Ken and Betwa rivers a ‘threat’ to the Panna Tiger Reserve.
Dr. Mohan Yadav said that the Congress should clarify whether it favoured the development of Bundelkhand or was against it.
Spread over 13 districts in Uttar Pradesh and MP, Bundelkhand has seen little development due to the challenges of weather and anthropogenic factors. Migration rates from the area rich in natural resources are high, and it is under a perpetual drought.
The linking of the Ken and Betwa is to address the water scarcity in the region. On December 26, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the project worth Rs 45,000 crore in Khajuraho.
Yadav took on Ramesh and said though he had spoken the words, the thought behind it was that of the Gandhi family. He added that whenever something beneficial was done for the people of Bundelkhand, the Congress could not stomach it as it brought people closer to the BJP.
Party leader Vishnu Dutt Sharma, who is also the MLA from Khajuraho said that the Congress was anti-poor and did not want any change in their lives. He said that the project would change the condition and direction in which Bundelkhand was headed for it would become green and prosperous.
Ramesh, who is a general secretary in his party, had posted on X that the Ken-Betwa linkage was another example of the difference between the PM’s ‘walk and talk on environment’. He also wrote that it highlights a ‘sharp contrast between his (The PM’s) rhetoric and action’.
This opposition stems from the fact that about 10 per cent of the land of the tiger reserve will be submerged for the project. A previous plan for linking the rivers was made in a Congress regime and subsequently junked.
