Jodhpur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has targeted Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on the issue of water shortage in the state. In his public address in Barmer on Friday, Gehlot said, “Jodhpur MP Shekhawat is Union Jal Shakti minister. Despite this people of his home constituency are suffering and he is not worried at all.”
He claimed that earlier the Center used to provide 90 per cent funds for water projects, which has now been reduced to half. Gehlot said that the state government is now also funding works like the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project. Gehlot alleged, “We can take our share of water from Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
Referring to Shekhawat’s alleged involvement in the Sanjivani Credit Co-operative Society scam, the Chief Minister asked Shekhawat to come forward and talk to the depositors of the society. Gehlot claimed that he also spoke to Shekhawat’s guru Bhagwan Singh Rolsahabsar and told him that his disciple was allegedly not returning depositors’ money.
“But nothing happened. He may also be under some compulsion for not asking Shekhawat to return the money,” he said. Shekhawat has denied the allegations of linking him with the credit society and has also filed a defamation case against Gehlot in a Delhi court. The Chief Minister of Rajasthan also talked about the welfare schemes by his government and said that since the BJP has no answer for these schemes, they are defaming the Congress and misleading the people.
At another public meeting at Rohat in Pali district, Gehlot criticized the Center for not taking any stand on the ongoing protest by wrestlers against outgoing WFI president Brij Bhushan Singh. Gehlot said, “Since when have our wrestler daughters been sitting in Delhi. But the Center has nothing to do with it. All the medal-winning players of the country are disappointed today.”
The Delhi Police has registered two FIRs against Singh. The FIR, based on complaints by six women wrestlers and the father of a minor, details several incidents of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, groping, stalking and intimidation by Singh at different times and places over a period of more than a decade. Alleged cases are described. ,