The Madhya Pradesh government today informed the state legislative assembly that it has spent Rs 40 crore on the 'Namami Devi Narmade- Sewa Yatra', its five-month long river conservation awareness programme that concluded in May this year.
The Madhya Pradesh government today informed the state legislative assembly that it has spent Rs 40 crore on the 'Namami Devi Narmade- Sewa Yatra', its five-month long river conservation awareness programme that concluded in May this year.
Out of the total expenses, Rs 21 crore were spent on the advertisements and publicity of the programme, the government told the House.
The 'Namami Devi Narmade- Sewa Yatra' programme was launched in December 2016 and ended in May 2017.
The government gave this information in the written replies to two separate questions asked by the leader of opposition Ajay Singh and Congress MLA Dr Govind Singh.
Replying to Ajay Singh's query, the government said that Madhya Pradesh Jan Abhiyan Parishad has spent Rs 19 crore on various works during the Sewa Yatra.
The expenses include Rs 9,42,158 on making arrangements for dignitaries invited to participate, in addition to Rs 6.86-crore spent in different districts during the Yatra's period.
In addition, an amount of Rs 1.10 crore was spent at the state level under various heads like prizes, audio-visual arrangements and creating a 50-seater 'Narmada Rath', among other things.
Moreover, Rs 9.88 crore were spent on the Yatra's concluding ceremony, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Madhya Pradesh Jan Abhiyan Parishad allocated this amount to different districts in the state for making preparations of the closing programme.
The people from all the districts had gathered to hear the prime minister during the closing ceremony of the Yatra at Amarkantak, where Narmada originates.
In a written reply to a query raised by Congress egislator Govind Singh, the government informed that the state Public Relations Department spent Rs 21,58,40,344 (Rs 21.58 crore) on the advertisements and publicity of the Yatra.
This expenditure included Rs 10.77 crore on the advertisements for print media, Rs 1.74 crore for electronic media and Rs 48.71 lakh on the printing publicity material.
Besides, the state government's agency - Madhyam - also spent Rs 8,58,69,344 (Rs 8.58 crore) on various publicity-related works.
In reply to the same query, the Public Relations Department informed that it spent Rs 35.51 lakh on the transportation during this Yatra. Of this, an amount of about Rs 22.21 lakh is yet to be paid to various travel agencies.
The amount of expenditure may go up further as the state government said that ten departments were involved in organising the 'Sewa Yatra' programme. However, the information provided in replies is related to Madhya Pradesh Jan Abhiyan Parishad and Public Relations department.
The state government also informed that ten other government departments/ agencies were involved in organising this Yatra. These departments are- Horticulture and Food Processing, Environment, Culture, Public Works Department, Agriculture, Urban Administration, Panchayat and Rural Development, Forest, besides the Public Relations department and Madhya Pradesh Jan Abhiyan Parishad.
However, the leader of opposition said that the expenditure is much higher than being cited by the state government.
"The state government is hiding the information of expenditure on this Yatra. It is estimated that over Rs 1,500 crore was spent on this event," he alleged.
A stretch of 1,831-km on southern bank of river Narmada comprising 548 villages/towns and 1513-km on northern bank comprising 556 village/towns were covered under the 148-days long Sewa Yatra.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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