Launching a piped water scheme in the parched Bundelkhand region, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said this region had remained neglected because of political indifference that led to drought and poverty-like situation, forcing people to migrate to other parts of the country to earn their living.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party showed the political will to bring life and prosperity in this region which is bestowed with all natural resources but has suffered because of people sitting in Lucknow and Delhi. The situation has taken a turn for the good. The BJP is committed to bringing prosperity in this region and for that the work has started,” Yogi Adityanath said while launching 12 rural piped water schemes worth Rs 2,185 crore in the region on Tuesday.
In the first phase, the project will cover three districts — Jhansi, Lalitpur and Mahoba — and later it will be extended to remaining four districts of Bundelkhand and two districts of Vindhyachal.
The chief minister said the projects were designed in such a way that they would be completed within two years and the implementing agency would carry out the maintenance work for the next 10 years.
“The government is committed to providing drinking water in all the villages across Bundelkhand and Vindhyachal regions. A survey was carried out last year in which it was found that out of 4,513 revenue villages, only 891 had piped water. The government made plans to provide water to the remaining 3,622 villages. This scheme will benefit 67 lakh population and the total expenditure of the project would be Rs 10,131.92 crore,” the chief minister said.
For the first phase, Rs 2,185 crore has been released by the government.
The chief minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking special pain to ensure that Bundelkhand joined the mainstream of development. “In February last year he had launched the piped water scheme in Jhansi while in February this year he laid the foundation stone of Bundelkhand Expressway in Chitrakoot,” he pointed out.
“The Bundelkhand Expressway is set to change the face of this region. Of the five nodes where the defence manufacturing corridor will come up, two are in Bundelkhand. The expressway will not only reduce the commutation time between Delhi and Jhansi but will also generate employment. In other words, it will stop migration,” Yogi said.
The chief minister also talked at length about the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which helped in slowing down the spread of coronavirus infection across the country.
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who joined the bhoomi pujan, said this scheme would end the curse which forces women to fetch water from far flung areas.
“This is only possible because of the vision of the prime minister. You are lucky to have a chief minister like Yogi Adityanath who ensures that the benefit reach the people,” he said.
“The prime minister has set a target to provide water in every house by 2024 but we will achieve this target by 2022. We will take water from the dams of Lalitpur, Jhansi and Mahoba and provide it to every house through pipes,” the Union minister said, adding that the management committee would have 50 per cent women.
UP’s Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh said there was no paucity of funds for these projects. “There are 2,500 water bodies which will also be revived. Protecting water will be made a people’s campaign,” he said.
BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh also spoke on this occasion.
