Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the tribal-dominated Dahod area of Gujarat on April 21, state BJP president C R Paatil said on Wednesday. Though there has been no official announcement of the prime minister's visit, party sources said he was likely to speak at a rally in the region.
Incidentally, Paatil had said on Tuesday that the Union government has decided not to greenlight the controversial Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project following protests by tribals in Gujarat. Elections are due in the BJP-ruled state by December. Tribal leaders within the state BJP too had appealed to the Centre not to go ahead with the project.
Addressing BJP workers in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, Paatil said, "Prime minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat on April 21. His first programme in the morning will be held in Dahod." Party workers will work to make it a grand event, he added. Later, talking to reporters, he said in over two-and-a-half decades that the BJP has been in power in Gujarat, the party has worked for the uplift of tribal communities.
"Due to this, they have been electing BJP candidates. While Congress organises a press conference in Delhi on issues related to Gujarat, BJP workers hold meetings for programme to be organised in tribal areas. There is a difference between the two," he said. He was referring to a press conference held on Wednesday by Congress in Delhi over the Par-Tapi-Narmada river link project. Congress Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat Shaktisinh Gohil and MLAs Sukhram Rathwa and Anant Patel attended the press meet.
On Tuesday, Paatil had said the Centre has decided not to give a go-ahead to the Par-Tapi-Narmada project.
The decision came after tribals in Valsad and other parts of south Gujarat organised massive rallies to protest against the announcement about the project made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech last month. Sitharaman had also said that the Union government will provide support for this and other river linking projects only after consensus is reached among concerned states.
The Par-Tapi-Narmada project envisages transfer of water from surplus regions of the Western Ghats to water deficit regions of Saurashtra and Kutch. It proposes seven new reservoirs in north Maharashtra and south Gujarat.
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