The Central Government on Wednesday released Rs 543 crore instalment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Madhya Pradesh. It also decided to provide 24,000 MT urea per day to the State in December in view of current agriculture requirements.
The decisions in this matter were taken during Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s separate meetings with Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley, Urban Development Minister Choudhary Birendra Singh, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar and Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Referring to progressive agriculture scenario of Madhya Pradesh, the Chief Minister underlined urea requirement of the State before Union Minister Ananth Kumar.
It is noteworthy that Madhya Pradesh has doubled its agriculture production in last 4 years. Besides, agriculture growth rate of the State stood at 24.9 per cent last year. Agriculture Production Commissioner RK Swai, Resident Commissioner RK Chaturvedi and Secretary to CM Vivek Agrawal were also present on the occasion.
During meeting with Union Urban Development Minister, Chief Minister Chouhan demanded funds for MNREGA. On this, the Union Minister immediately released Rs 543 crore instalment under the scheme so that financial problems of MNREGA labourers can be removed.
The Chief Minister demanded revival of scheme for providing drinking water through rural group water schemes from surface water through Japanese loan (JAICA) and make available 33 per cent Central grant for Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana.
During meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at his office in Sansad Bhavan, the Chief Minister demanded Rs 1,000 crore for Simhastha-2016. He informed the Union Finance Minister that about 5 crore devotees were likely to attend this mega event. The State Government had spent about Rs 1,300 crore so far on infrastructure works for Simhastha at Ujjain whereas Rs 3,500 crore was expected to be spent on entire works.
The Chief Minister also demanded pending Rs 660 crore amount under Vadaiyanathan Package for cooperative banks and Rs 1,000 thousand crore grant under MNREGA to the state.
During meeting with Railway Minister Prabhu, Chief Minister Chouhan urged for proper arrangements of rakes for urea supply so that state’s farmers get urea without any hindrance.
At the meeting, issues pertaining removal of difficulties in bringing construction of railway over-bridge at Pithampur under PPP mode and establishment of multi model logistics hub in the state through joint efforts of Railway Corporation and state government were also discussed.