The State Congress has pooh-poohed the decision of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government to scrap the Singaji thermal power project.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief spokesman KK Mishra in a statement here on Tuesday said, "Due to the non-cooperation of the BJP Government at the Centre, the BJP Government of the State has decided to cancel the Singaji Thermal Power Project. The decision comes after the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre declined to allot coal for the plant in Khandwa district of the State."
Mishra further said that the then Union Minister and now MPCC president Arun Yadav got this project sanctioned from the UPA Government at the Centre for Khandwa. Then also there was a BJP Government in the State and now when the BJP Government is both at the Centre and in the State and the MP of Khandwa is also BJP State president, still the project has been cancelled, that is amazing.
He said that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had named the project after 'Dhuni Wale Dadaji' and now it is very shameful to cancel the project that was once named after 'Dhuni Wale Dadaji.' The project was started by the UPA Government with the assistance of the State Government and was to be run as a joint undertaking of the State and the Central Governments, he added.
He said that it is an irony that the State that is facing power crisis has been forced to cancel its thermal power project only due to the Central Government's denial to make coal available for it, that too when Madhya Pradesh figures among the top three coal-producing States of the country.
The senior Congress leader said that the decision to cancel the project exposes the State Governments' failure and incapability. It is the misfortune of Madhya Pradesh that parliamentarians from the State are Ministers in the Union Cabinet and they are not able to pay attention in the interests of the State, he added.