Bhopal: Amid the announcement of an inquiry into approximately Rs 500 crore being expended on plantation of about seven crore seedlings on a single day two years back in Madhya Pradesh, Assembly Speaker Narmada Prasad Prajapati on Wednesday directed that ministers of departments concerned should meet in this regard.
Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday announced a probe into the previous BJP regime’s claim of planting seven crore samplings on a single day across the state in 2017. Congress member Kunal Choudhary, through a Call Attention motion in the state Assembly, alleged that fake payments running into several crores were made under the one- day plantation drive held on July 2, 2017, and sought an inquiry into it.
Congress MLA Vinay Saxena and BSP legislator Sanjeev Singh supported the demand. Responding to it, state Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot said four departments, including his, would carry out the inquiry in a month. “The state finance, forest, rural development and industries departments will oversee the probe,” he said. Bhanot claimed that the previous government spent a whopping Rs 499 crore on the plantation in a futile attempt to get the feat registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Questions and answers continued for a long while and the Minister said, “No global record was created. Large-scale inconsistencies have come to the fore. The work was undertaken by the Forest, Rural Development, Agriculture and Horticulture departments besides the Jan Abhiyan Parishad.