By IANS,
Lucknow: Refuting allegations levelled by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Aluwalia about poor implementation of the special Bundelkkhand package released by the union government, the Uttar Pradesh government said Monday the reverse was actually the case.
Addressing a press conference here on his return from the Bundelkhand region where he had accompanied Ahluwalia for an on-the-spot review, state Chief Secretary Anoop Misra said that he had convinced Ahluwalia that everything taken up as a part of the package was very much in order.
“Even though we received barely Rs.1,500 crores against our demand of Rs.10,000 crore, we were able to show excellent results on the ground,” he said.
“If the entire funding could be provided by the centre, we could really do wonders there,” Misra added.
“The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission did have a lot many doubts when he came, but after we showed him around the ground reality, he was convinced that we were well up to the mark on most counts,” he said.
“And mind you, it was not as if we took him to places of our choice. In fact, he refused to follow the itinerary we had prepared for him and chose to take his own route, yet went back satisfied with the work we have carried out in terms of improving irrigation and drinking water resources in the water-scarce Bundelkhand region.”
Ahluwalia, who arrived in Jhansi Sunday, visited parts of Lalitpur district also before returning to New Delhi. He was accompanied by union Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain, who hails from Bundelkhand and was highly critical of alleged large-scale pilferage of development funds under the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) regime.