Shah highlights PM’s efforts to boost drinking water supply in Gujarat  

AHMEDABAD:  Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday shared a short video to highlight Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to augment water supply in Gujarat, saying the state suffered the water crisis 21 years ago, but every household has a tap water supply.

“Everyone, especially the youth in Gujarat, must watch the video that highlights Modi’s foresight and hard work in dealing with the state’s water crisis,” Shah tweeted. The video says the water table in the state had plummeted to 200 m in 2001, the year Modi took over as its chief minister, from 30 metre in 1975, and its dry and arid area was growing.

Through various schemes, the then state government under Modi built a network of canals spanning across 1,126 km and supplied piped water to households while the height of the Narmada dam was raised to 138.68 metre, it says.

Modi was the Gujarat CM from 2001-14 before becoming the prime minister. The Assembly polls in the state are due December 1 and 5, and the BJP is pulling out all the stops to maintain its winning streak since 1995. On Monday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, state party chief CR Patil and other state organizational leaders reached Delhi to participate in a two-day central election committee meeting and the parliamentary board meeting.

Reports said Patil and Gujarat CM held a protracted meeting at Shah’s residence. The BJP will hold a meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) on Wednesday evening to finalise the first list of candidates for the Assembly polls.

“For the panel selection of BJP candidates, Shah stayed in Gujarat for three days starting last Thursday and finalized a panel of three candidates from four zones of Gujarat, which include North Gujarat, Central Gujarat, South Gujarat, and Saurashtra Zone,” said a source. A BJP leader said more than 3,500 candidates were taken up for 182 seats in the Gujarat Parliamentary Board meeting held for three days in the presence of Amit Shah.

11-time Congress MLA joins BJP in Guj
Mohansinh Rathwa, 11-time Congress MLA from Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat, resigned from Congress and joined BJP on Tuesday. He had said that  he will not contest the next assembly elections.After joining BJP in presence of senior BJP leaders at BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar, Rathva said, “I worked in the Congress for so many years but now the time has changed... My son wanted me to join the BJP so I joined the party.”