Bhopal: Tax payers will have to pay through their nose for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh at the conclusion ceremony of Narmada Yatra, as crores of rupees will be spent from the state exchequer for mobilising crowd for the meeting. Every district has been given a target for arranging crowd at the meeting, following which district collectors and concerned officials have sought funds from the government to execute the work.
Documents showing officials asking funds from government for mobilising crowd have been surfaced in the media, which confirmed that Singrauli collector sought Rs 85 lakh from ACS (planning, economics and statistics) for ferrying people to and from Amarkantak, CEO of Rewa district panchayat sought Rs 68 lakh and DTO of Ashoknagar demanded Rs 20 lakh. Though not clearly stated, the documents however hinted at other districts making similar demands.
Besides transportation cost, the government’s panchayats and rural development department has allocated substantial funds for buying towels and T-shirts for the participants. While the government has given the responsibility of mobilsing crowd for the function to different departments, the urban development, planning and other departments will be spending the funds.
Activist Vinayak Parihar said on one hand Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan claims that the yatra is conducted with public support; on the other hand the government is splurging huge funds on it.
