NEW DELHI, May 13: A non-Congress Government at the Centre is unlikely to stop UPA’s flagship programmes, Union minister Jairam Ramesh today claimed saying BJP chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh have been biggest supporters of schemes like MNREGA.
“I don’t fear that flagship programmes will actually be stopped,” the Rural Development Minister said when asked about what would happen to the flagship programmes in case there is Narendra Modi-led Government at the Centre after May 16.
“On the flagship programmes, the biggest supporters of MNREGA have been Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh. On the UPA Government’s approach to development in Naxal areas, the biggest supporters of the UPA Government have been Raman Singh, Arjun Munda, Navin Patnaik… So I think that whatever Mr Modi may claim in his campaign, one thing…,” he said, without elaborating.
He said that the UPA Government did not discriminate against states having non-UPA Governments.
According to him, one remarkable feature of this elections was the impressive voter turn out in the Maoist affected districts in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Odisha.
Effective implementation flagship programmes like MNREGA have helped increasing confidence in the people, administration, which, in turn, has resulted in a high voter turnout in these districts, he said.
The minister said the road to deal with Maoist challenge is intensified political activity, extensive rural development on the ground particularly relating to roads and empowerment of people through programmes like MNREGA and an overall security umbrella which provide confidence for development activities to take place.
He also said measures were taken by the UPA Government to address the “historical injustices” perpetrated on them by the forest and police administration. (PTI)
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