Metro, Barmer refinery drag on finances: Raje

Lashing out at the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in her reply in the state Assembly Wednesday blamed the Congress for leaving the state’s finances in a dire condition. Raje said that the state is in a fiscal deficit of Rs 28,052 crore and alleged that the previous government made inappropriate investments in developing an 11-km Metro line and the oil refinery in Barmer.

Raje said that when in 2004 she had first spoken to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation E Sreedharan about the feasibility of the project in Jaipur, he had advised against it. “When we were in power last time from 2003 to 2008, we too thought of bringing the Metro. It was then that I consulted Sreedharan and he told us that it will be economically unviable till 2025. But the previous Congress government was in a tearing hurry to bring the Metro as part of its populist measures and spent Rs 3,400 crore on a corridor of just 11 kms. To add to it the running cost per year will be Rs 50 crore,” Raje told the House. “In that much money we could have revamped the entire state’s transport system and laid 5,000 kms of road linakge.”

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Referring to the overhead Metro corridor Raje said, “Jaipur is a heritage city and its skyline is famous but now the city is unable to see the sky.”

“As for the oil refinery, it is a ghaate ka sauda (unprofitable venture). Despite a huge investment, the state government will barely get anything in return and have just 26 per cent shares in the company. The company will take our land, our oil and will give back very little to the state exchequer,” she said.

Reacting to the allegations, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sachin Pilot said, “The government should have a positive agenda and if they find flaws in any of the projects they should improve upon them instead of reversing the decisions simply because the Congress government introduced the projects. Such attitude smacks of political negativity.”