Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Madhya Pradesh has transited to "Bemisaal" (extraordinary) state shedding the tag of "Bimaru" due to the good governance and people-friendly policies of the BJP government.
'Bimaru' acronym was used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as they had lagged in terms of economic growth, healthcare and education.
Barring a short period after the 2018 assembly elections, BJP has been ruling the state for almost 20 years in a row.
Ahead of the assembly elections, senior BJP leader Sitharaman addressed a press conference to highlight the various measures taken by the BJP government.
The minister said the overall development in the state has come about because of 5Gs -- Growth, Good Governance, Goodwill of people, Guarantee of Modiji and Garib Kalyan (welfare of poor).
On account of the 5Gs, "Madhya Pradesh has ceased to be a Bimaru state and has become a "Bemisaal state".
She also exuded confidence that the BJP will get the support of all sections of the people in the assembly elections.
The state, Ms Sitharaman said, has witnessed all-round progress in areas such as social justice, industry and agriculture.
Reeling out statistics, the finance minister said in 2002, the per capita income of Madhya Pradesh was Rs 11,171.
"The state has now witnessed a 12-fold increase in per capita income and it has gone up to Rs 1.40 lakh," she said, and added the debt to GDP ratio of the state has fallen to 27.8 per cent in 2023 from 31.6 per cent because of the good governance of the BJP government in the state.
The minister further said the BJP government in the state has given a lot of emphasis on agriculture as the state government's budget allocation to the sector has increased from Rs 600 crore in 2002 to Rs 54,000 crore in 2023.
Growth of agriculture in the state has also increased from 3 per cent in 2002 to over 18 per cent in 2023, she said and added that procurement of both paddy and wheat too have gone up significantly.
She also highlighted that 90 lakh farmers in the state received Rs 12,000 per year (Rs 6,000 each from the Centre and state through PM Kisan Samman Nidhi).
The Union finance minister also said that nearly Rs 1.4 lakh crore loans have been disbursed through PM MUDRA Yojana in Madhya Pradesh and 10 lakh street vendors have received loans under PM SVANidhi.
Also, 10,000 beneficiaries (SC, ST and women) have received loans under the Stand-Up India Scheme in the state.
Ms Sitharaman informed that tax devolution to Madhya Pradesh has increased by nearly 4 times to more than Rs 5 lakh crore during 2014-24 (till October 2023), as against Rs 1.28 lakh crore during 2004-14.
All 230 assembly seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. Counting of votes of Madhya Pradesh, along with four other states, is scheduled on December 3.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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