Sagar (MP): Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath on Thursday said more than one crore youths are unemployed in the state due to "wrong" policies of the BJP government and alleged people get benefits of welfare schemes only after paying a "50 per cent commission".
Addressing a rally here ahead of the November 17 assembly polls, the former chief minister claimed the future of youths, farmers and other sections of society has been "ruined" by the BJP government.
“One crore youths have remained unemployed in Madhya Pradesh because of wrong policies of the government. People get benefits of (welfare) schemes only after paying 50 per cent commission in the state,” Nath alleged at the rally in Khurai town of Sagar district.
Madhya Pradesh urban administration and development minister Bhupendra Singh is contesting from Khurai in the Budelkhand region on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket against Congress candidate Raksha Rajput.
Referring to the region's backwardness, Nath reminded the gathering that a Rs 8,000-crore package for Budelkhand's development was approved in 2009 by the then-UPA government at the Centre at the initiative of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Had this "50 per cent commission" government not been in power, the people of Budelkhand, spread across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, would have got full benefit of the financial assistance, said the state Congress president, hitting out at the ruling BJP.
Nath alleged Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has put a "lock" on the future of Madhya Pradesh and "this lock opens only when you pay a 50 per cent commission" to authorities.
"He has put a lock on the income of farmers, pension of employees and on school uniforms of children," said the Congress leader in a scathing attack on the BJP chief minister.
The state Congress president slammed Chouhan for taking credit of bringing metro rail to Madhya Pradesh and asserted it was his government (December 2018-March 2020) that had sanctioned the project.
Appealing to people to vote for the Congress, Nath announced a slew of promises on the occasion, including a farm loan waiver, paying minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,500 per quintal for paddy and Rs 2,600 a quintal for wheat if his party came to power after the polls.
He promised to hike financial assistance provided to beneficiaries under the Kanya Vivah Yojna to Rs 1.01 lakh (from Rs 51,000 now) and form an Indian Premier League (IPL) team of Madhya Pradesh if the Congress gets a chance to rule the state.
Voting to elect a new 230-member assembly will be held in a single phase and counting will take place on December 3.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)