Dewas

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not only fulfilled the long‑cherished dream of building the Ram temple in Ayodhya but also ushered in "Ram Rajya", a vision once confined to imagination and literature.

Yadav also targeted the Opposition Congress, saying it wants to shut down the Ladli Behna Yojana, which provides financial assistance to women in the state.

He rejected allegations levelled against the BJP on the issue of education by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme in Indore recently, dubbing the Opposition party's youth outreach programme as "Jhooth ki Goonj" (resonance of lies).

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted via video conference with participants of the 'Seva Sankalp Yatra', a march between Vadnagar in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The motorcycle-riding participants were at Punjapura in MP's Dewas district, where Chief Minister Yadav welcomed them.

The yatra, involving youth from various states, is being held to mark Modi's 76th birthday and his 25 years in public life as an elected representative.

Praising the Prime Minister's leadership, Yadav said, "Until now, we had only imagined Ram Rajya and read about it in literature... I am proud that Prime Minister Modi built the temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya and also brought Ram Rajya."

He hit out at previous Congress governments in the state, saying they did not provide a single penny to half the population, but the current BJP government is depositing monthly assistance into women's bank accounts under the Ladli Behna Yojana, thus "making the Congress feel embarrassed".

"A Congress leader has filed a petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court to have the Ladli Behna Yojana discontinued," he pointed out.

The BJP-led state government has so far disbursed Rs 55,000 crore to women beneficiaries under this scheme, the CM informed.

Former Congress councillor Sudha Dubey has filed a public interest litigation before the HC's Gwalior bench, urging that the Ladli Behna Yojana be discontinued and the monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 each being provided to over 1.25 crore female beneficiaries in the state be stopped.

The scheme was launched just months before the 2023 assembly elections. It played a key role in the BJP's victory in the polls, as per political analysts.

Slamming Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme held in Indore on September 19, Yadav said, "The Congress leader has left Indore with a false narrative. During your (Congress) rule, 16 per cent of school children dropped out, while under our government, this rate is zero per cent."

During the Congress rule in the state, the school education budget was only Rs 1,200 crore in 2002-03, which the current BJP government has increased to Rs 38,000 crore, the CM highlighted.

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Rahul Gandhi had claimed during his 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme that 100,000 government schools in the country have closed, of which 55 per cent are in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.