Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot government are once again at loggerheads, this time over the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP). Shekhawat’s Jal Shakti Ministry has asked the state to stop the project, with Gehlot accusing his BJP rival from the state of obstructing the same. The Jal Shakti Ministry note to the Rajasthan government says that projects under the ERCP must be put on hold till the “inter-state issues are resolved and the project is accorded approval by the advisory committee”. The letter to Rajasthan Chief Secretary Usha Sharma adds that the appraisal of the project is held up due to objections by the co-basin state Madhya Pradesh, ruled by the BJP. The Gehlot government has been trying to project the ERCP as its pet project, and using it to accuse the Narendra Modi government of step-motherly treatment towards Rajasthan. The project aims to transfer surplus water from the Chambal river basin to Banas, Morel, Banganga, Kalisil, Gambhir and Parbati river sub-basins, so as to ensure drinking water at least up to the year 2051 in 13 Rajasthan districts and mitigate flood and drought situations there. The Gehlot government says the ERCP would also increase agricultural yields, thereby improving the standard of living. The Congress, which is under increasing pressure from the BJP ahead of next year's state elections, hopes that benefits from the project will help it make gains in the 13 districts, which account for 83 Assembly seats – a substantial chunk of the state's 200 constituencies. It was the earlier Vasundhara Raje government that had first submitted a detailed report to the Central Water Commission on the project in 2017. A major catch was the cost - now estimated at Rs 37,247 crore – prompting the state to demand that it be declared a National Project, so that the Centre would take on most of the tab. In the run-up to the 2018 Assembly elections, while speaking in Jaipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a “positive” approach by the Centre towards the state’s demand. However, since the Congress assumed power in Rajasthan and Gehlot became the CM, there has been little progress on the ERCP. The CM has consistently sought that the Centre make it a National Project. He claims to have written over 15 letters to the Centre, including to the PM, with a response rare. The 13 districts that the project covers can roughly be divided into eastern (8) and eastern-most (5). The first category includes Alwar, Jaipur, Ajmer, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Tonk and Jhalawar, which account for 59 Assembly seats, which were almost evenly divided between the two parties in 2018. While 29 were won by the Congress, 24 went to the BJP and six to Independents, all of whom have been supporting the Congress government. It is in the five easternmost districts - Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Dholpur, Karauli and Dausa – that the Congress trounced the BJP. Of the 24 seats from here, the BJP won just one last time. The MLA, Shobharani Kushwah, was recently expelled from the party following her ‘rebellion’ during the Rajya Sabha polls in June, when she cross-voted for Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari. The Congress had won 20 seats in 2018, while one had gone to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and two to Independents. RLD MLA Subhash Garg is a minister in the Gehlot government, while both the Independents support the Congress. Gehlot has contrasted the delay over the ERCP with the Centre approving the Ken Betwa river linking project, which will benefit 13 districts in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In December 2021, the Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi had approved funding for implementing the interlinking of Ken and Betwa rivers at a total cost of Rs 44,605 crore, and also approved Central support of Rs 39,317 crore, or almost 90 per cent of the cost. Indicating his frustration with the Centre, even as the Assembly elections draw near, Gehlot, in his budget this year, announced that the state would continue the ERCP work with its own resources, part of which includes works costing Rs 9,600 crore. Considering the “humongous task”, the state said it would create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), to “generate extra budgetary revenue sources”. In April this year, Rajasthan’s Public Health Engineering Department Minister Mahesh Joshi had a public spat with Shekhawat over the ERCP at a regional conference of states and Union Territories on the Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission. Later, the Congress had hit the roads against Shekhawat in the 13 districts which would fall under the ERCP. The ERCP spat is just one of the many issues on which there has been long-running animosity between Gehlot-Joshi and Shekhawat. Gehlot has accused Shekhawat of being involved in the in-house rebellion led by Sachin Pilot against his government in 2020. Joshi, also the Congress whip, had filed a case naming Shekhawat and others for allegedly scheming to topple the Gehlot government. Shekhawat had filed a counter case in New Delhi against Gehlot’s OSD Lokesh Sharma and others for allegedly tapping phones. Locally too, the ERCP issue has been gaining momentum. For the past several months, Vikram Singh Meena, incumbent state president of BKU (Yuva Morcha) and former national secretary of the Congress's NSUI, has focused on the ERCP issue in his protests.
