By IANS
Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Friday asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would retain power in the state on the basis of its development work done in the past four years.
Participating in the debate on the motion of thanks on Governor Address to the assembly, Chouhan said that good governance has been the main strength of his government but the opposition lacked the courage to face the challenge posed by it.
He said that the state was all set to become power-surplus as soon as the ongoing power projects were completed, adding that the central government was deliberately delaying completion of thermal units at Birsingpur and Amarkantak.
He said the state was suffering because the central government was denying it 400 MW of its share of power.
Chouhan also charged the central government with reducing the state’s food grain and kerosene quota meant for distribution to the poor people, and added that his repeated requests to the prime minister and union agriculture minister to raise the quota for the below poverty line families has not been heard.
The opposition Congress boycotted Chouhan’s speech to protest the disruption of Leader of Opposition Jamuna Devi’s speech earlier by the treasury benches.
Samajwadi Party member Sunilam also staged a walkout during the chief minister’s speech, lamenting that no announcement to waive farmers’ loans and withdrawal of cases against farmers for alleged electricity thefts had been made.
After Chouhan’s speech, the house adopted a motion of thanks on Governor’s Address.