MP CM meets Jaitley; Raman sees Prabhu

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh today met different Union ministers here to press for demands related to their states.
Chouhan met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to apprise him of the prevailing drought in the state and its fall out on the conditions of farmers and on food production.
He urged the Union minister to urgently sent a central study team to assess the extent of damage on the crops. Chouhan also submitted a memorandum in this regard, a press release issued by the state government said.
Jaitley gave a patient hearing to the chief minister and assured him of sending on early central study team to assess the extent of damage, it said.

Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh CM met Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu who gave his consent to construction of 310 km-long Raipur-Baloda Bazar-Jharsuguda railway line as an alternative rail route to Mumbai-Howrah railway route crossing Chhattisgarh.
Singh said that the proposed Raipur-Baloda Bazar-Jharsuguda rail line will pass through four districts of the state and create an alternative shorter route for already saturated Mumbai-Howrah route.

The construction of 182 km-long Ambikapur-Barwadih rail line through Special Purpose Vehicle was also agreed upon during the meeting, a release issued by Chhattisgarh government said.
The CM informed that the Ambikapur-Barwadih rail line will connect with Balrampur district and will be a shorter route for coal transportation as it will pass through important coal mines.

Prabhu asked Singh to give proposal to develop five railway stations of Chhattisgarh under Public-Private- Partnership (PPP) model.
Singh also met Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and sought about Rs 3,000 crore for complete development of naxal-affected Bastar region, a state government official said.