Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that Madhya Pradesh came out of its “bimaru (ill)“ status only because of the “5G mantra” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a press conference in the poll-bound State’s Bhopal, Ms. Sitharaman said, “The credit of turning M.P. from a bimaru State to a bemisal (incomparable) State goes to the governance of the BJP government. And this governance has five sutras (principles), which I am calling 5G.” She added: “They are growth, good governance, goodwill, guarantee of Modi ji, and gareeb kalyan (welfare of the poor). These are the five sutras because of which the bimaru M.P. has today become bemisal M.P.,” the Minister added.
Agri growth
She added that a lot of emphasis had been placed on agriculture under the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. “The State government’s budget allocation to agriculture has increased from ₹600 crore in 2002 to ₹54,000 crore in 2023. Growth of agriculture has also increased from 3% in 2002 to over 18% in 2023,” she said.
Paddy procurement in M.P. has increased by 46 times from 95,000 tonnes in 2002 to 45 lakh tonnes now, the Finance Minister said, adding that wheat procurement has also grown from 4 lakh tonnes in 2002 to 70 lakh tonnes at present.
The BJP leader noted that M.P. has witnessed a 12-fold increase in per capita income under the party’s rule. “It has gone up from ₹11,171 in 2002 to ₹1.40 lakh,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
Several BJP leaders from the Centre and other States have been campaigning for the party in M.P. as it seeks to retain power in the State which it has ruled for over 18 years since 2003.
