By IANS,
New Delhi : A day after being sworn in, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh Thursday said the Supreme Court’s observation on his links with moneylenders who harass farmers was an “isolated incident”. He denied any link between his portfolio and farmer suicides in Maharashtra and termed his new assignment as “a promotion”.
“One isolated incident cannot be connected with other things,” Deshmukh told reporters after taking charge. The court last month had raised questions on the former Maharashtra chief minister’s alleged links with money lenders who harass farmers in the state’s Vidarbha region.
“I don’t want to comment on the Supreme Court judgment. The judgment has come but we are looking for further remedy and this matter is already under discussion with my advocate,” he said.
Deshmukh also said there was no link between his being chosen as the rural development minister and farmer suicides in Maharashtra.
“These two things cannot be connected and are two different things. In Maharashtra, the reasons were totally different and now, when the state government and prime minister have given some package, things have improved. It’s not that things have not improved,” he said.
Deshmukh was the chief minister of Maharashtra from 1999 to 2003, and then from 2004 to 2008, and was accused of not taking enough action to stop the suicides.
But he said schemes to benefit rural people such as the rural jobs scheme NREGA had failed to work in Vidarbha.
“In the region of Vidarbha, where these suicides were committed, even NREGA or the Maharashtra Rozgar Guarantee scheme (were implemented), we tried our best but couldn’t get the proper manpower on work,” he said.
“There were so many reasons. Even though these schemes were implemented in Maharashtra, we did not get that much response from those areas. So these two things cannot be connected because this scheme is for the whole country covering 620 districts,” he said.
Deshmukh, who was moved from heavy industries and public enterprises to rural development ministry, said the change of his portfolio was “a promotion”.
“It is a promotion as the ministry concerns 80 percent of the country’s population,” he said, adding that the change of portfolios was the prerogative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Deshmukh said he had started as a sarpanch of his village and now will work for people living in villages of the country as rural development minister.
“I have twice been chief minister of Maharashtra. This is an opportunity to serve the whole country,” he said.
Deshmukh called upon states to give the central government due credit for its schemes.
He said steps will be taken to deal with complaints of corruption in NREGA.