The Hindu : Congress responsible for State's ills: Vasundhara

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Friday, Jan 23, 2004

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Congress responsible for State's ills: Vasundhara

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JAN. 22 .The Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, today held the previous Congress Government responsible for the backwardness as well as the poor financial status of the State. "A major section of people are still deprived of basic facilities in Rajasthan,'' she said.

"We have inherited a poor, sluggish, hapless and economically weak State with its coffers empty. We have to rebuild Rajasthan. It is a long journey of development for us,'' Ms.Raje said replying to the motion of thanks on the address of the Governor in the State Assembly.

The Chief Minister's reply, which came at the end of the three-day debate on the Governor, Madan Lal Khurana's address summed up the general mood of the newly-elected members of the ruling party who participated in the debate.

Prior to her reply, the Leader of the Opposition, B.D.Kalla, spoke on the motion. For both Ms.Raje and Dr.Kalla it was their maiden performance in the new House in their present capacity.

The Chief Minister hailed the new Governor while thanking for his address and congratulated the first woman Speaker in the House, Sumitra Singh. She also welcomed the newly- elected members and thanked the people for their mandate to her. Her one- hour speech was at times self congratulatory, especially when it came to references on getting additional funds from the Centre. "We brought more money. The previous Government too could have got it, if they had tried. They should have convinced the Centre and presented their case properly,'' she said.

The Centre had helped Rajasthan at the time of the previous Government also. The State was given maximum drought relief assistance by way of funds, grain, fodder and support for water supply, she asserted.

The poor financial situation notwithstanding Rajasthan would not project itself as a `pauper State'', Ms.Raje said. "That affects our self esteem,'' she observed. The previous Government had taken loans running into thousands of crores but failed to create any tangible assets in return.

"Taking loans is necessary but one should create assets from it. One should also find ways and means to repay them as well,'' the Chief Minister said even as the Congress MLAs, specially the former Finance Minister, Pradhyumna Singh and Dr.Kalla challenged the figures.

The new Government not only got the plan size enhanced but also the interest rates on the loans were much lower than in the past, she informed.

Ms.Raje said her Government would try to plug the revenue leakages and curtail non-tax revenue expenditure. She also announced setting up of a Commission on Expenditure Reforms headed by Yateendra Singh, a retired IAS officer.

She also announced a high- level committee headed by the senior IAS officer, Anil Vaish, to look into the recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission, headed in the past by the former Chief Minister, Shiv Charan Mathur. "I am surprised why the previous Government did not gave any attention to the recommendations which were formulated after so much study and research,'' she wondered, not missing the opportunity to divide the Congress on this count. It is a known fact that Ms.Raje's predecessor, Ashok Gehlot, did not pay much heed to the recommendations made by Mr.Mathur though his Government only had set up the Reforms Commission.

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