Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday called for the public release of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments regarding the PKC-ERCP link project. He stated that the newly signed agreement was being kept secret, and the public had the right to know if the project would benefit Rajasthan.

This comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled laying of the foundation stone for the Modified Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal-Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (PKC-ERCP) on December 17.

Gehlot said, "The opposition has demanded that the MoU between the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments under the PKC-ERCP be made public. People deserve to know whether this project will benefit Rajasthan. The new agreement is being kept hidden. It is being claimed that the new scheme lacks the irrigation provisions that the earlier ERCP scheme had."

He further criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for playing politics over public welfare projects. He compared the ERCP project to the Barmer Refinery project, which saw its cost rise significantly due to delays.

Gehlot remarked, "In my political experience, I have never seen an agreement between two governments being kept secret. The public has no information about it. In 2013, when the refinery project was transferred from the UP government to Rajasthan, it was inaugurated, but after the government changed, the BJP halted the work and tried to restart it, which led to a cost increase of several thousand crores. The Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) seems to be heading in the same direction. Public welfare projects should not be politicized, but that is what the BJP does."

The ERCP project, initially announced by the BJP in 2017-18, aims to provide drinking and irrigation water to 13 districts in eastern Rajasthan.

Disclaimer: This image is taken from Business Standard