JAIPUR: Tourism minister Vishvendra Singh’s reply to a question in the assembly left the House in splits.
Intervening during the Question Hour in response to the original question by BJP MLA Dharam Narayan Joshi, leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria asked why no money was spent in the last three years for the development of tourism at places associated with Maharana Pratap, the minister said, “I was on leave for a year, during that time this department was under the chief minister. Now, I am back, let's see what I can do.”
Singh, the then tourism minister, was among the three ministers sacked by chief minister Ashok Gehlot for siding with Sachin Pilot in 2020 during the political crisis. He was reinstated only last December in the cabinet reshuffle.
Joshi had raised the issue of the slow pace of renovation and development of places related to Pratap. In response to this, the minister said that for the development and conservation of places related to Pratap, work has been done under Mewar Complex Phase-II.
He said Kumbhalgarh, Gogunda, Dewair Myra's cave, Chapli, Chavand, Haldighati related to Pratap are located in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts. For the development of these sites, the Mewar complex phase II has been completed in the last five years. Under this, development works worth Rs 4.03 crore has been done in Haldighati, Rs 1.34 crore in Gogunda, Rs 46 lakh in Chapli, Rs 69 lakh in Chavand, Rs 1.39 crore in Dewair.
Kataria said, according to answer given, no work has been done after 2018-19. The column for 2019-20 and 20-21 is blank. This must have made you wonder what is the attitude of department? Then the minister gave this funny reply.
