Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday announced that the state will achieve the GDP target of Rs ten lakh crore this fiscal. Chouhan made the statement while spelling out the state’s strategy for a post-Covid-19 scenario at the ‘Rising MP Summit’ in Bhopal.

Since assuming office in March last year, there had been hardly any revenue generation for the first three-four months due to the covid-19 pandemic, he said. “Bureaucrats keep coming up with ideas like cutting salaries by half, but I put my foot down by saying this was not the way. We have to find ways to arrange funds,” he said.

“Apart from controlling the covid-19 situation and arranging treatment facilities, we deposited Rs 86,000 crore in farmers’ accounts. In total, we transferred Rs 1.18 lakh crore to the public accounts under various schemes during the pandemic,” said the Chief Minister. “For a post-Covid-19 scenario, we have chalked out an ‘Atmanirbhar MP’ (self-reliant MP) roadmap with four key points: infrastructure, education, health and economy.”

He also said that a Rs 2.41 lakh crore-budget was presented recently in the state assembly, which the government solely prepared without bureaucrats’ help. Chouhan promised that the government will arrange funds to fulfil this estimate.

Speaking about the “good news” of the state’s GDP target, he also claimed it will attain “self-reliance” soon. “I wish to offer another good news that MP will become a state with Rs ten lakh GDP by the year-end and we will also attain atmanirbharta (self-reliance) soon,” he added.

He also launched an attack on the Kamal Nath government and said he had taken the resolve to hand over the chief minister post after BJP got 109 seats and Congress 114. “But it was their fault that they could not run the government,” he added.

On allegations over the ‘love jihad’ ordinance, the Chief Minister said that destroying someone’s life for religious conversion is not justified at all. “MP police had rescued one girl from Secunderabad and another from Nepal border in cases of forceful conversions. Formulating a law against this aims to safeguard our girls,” he said.

Regarding multiple police encounters during his fourth term, Chouhan refuted saying the government aims to throw the criminals in jails. However, he said nothing can be done about their own actions. “We can’t help if someone lands elsewhere due to his own deeds,” he said.

Asked to respond to his West Bengal assembly polls slogan “2 May Didi Gayi, BJP Aayi” (on May 2, Mamata Banerjee goes and BJP arrives), Chouhan claimed that there is massive resentment for the TMC supremo in Bengal and the public in huge numbers are standing behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Responding to Banerjee’s ‘Khela Hobe’ (game on) remark, Chouhan chuckled and said, “Khel khatam ho gaya hai” (the game is over).

Days after Hindu Mahasabha leader Babulal Chaurasia joined Congress ahead of the MP civic polls, Chouhan said he wasn’t sure what standards the party was following. “I leave it to my Congress friends to decide this,” he said.