Terming the BJP's win in Leh Hill Council polls in Jammu and Kashmir as a "good sign", Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today asserted that the party will replicate such victory in Bihar Assembly elections too
"For the first time, the people of Leh who have remained neglected for years during the Congress-National Conference regime, have voted for BJP. This has also helped removing the perception that Buddhists were against the BJP," he claimed.
Javadekar said the policies of Narendra Modi government has come in for appreciation right from Leh to Andaman and people want "development and development."
"People have reposed faith in BJP leadership.. Though small in population but in large territory, the Leh people (mostly Buddhists) have voted BJP for victory. Bihar politics is for a major shift but people will vote for development and not for caste," he said.
Javadekar was here for the 'bhoomi-pujan' of a national highway near Mansar on Nagpur-Jabalpur road through forests.
Yesterday, dislodging Congress, BJP swept the Leh elections, bagging 17 seats in the 26-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council. In the last elections held in 2010, Congress had 22 seats while BJP had 4.
On environment issues, Javadekar said during the next five years, the Forest and Environment Ministry will invest about Rs two lakh crores for afforestation programmes.
The 14th Finance Commission has given weightage of about 7.5 percent (allocation towards the issue) which is roughly to the tune of Rs 50,000 crores, he said.
Also, Javadekar himself has piloted a Bill to empower (all) states with another Rs 40,000 crores from the central funding. The Bill is being discussed by the Standing Committee and will come up in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament for passage.
The Ministry was in the process of giving 2.5 crores hectares out of eight crores hectares of degraded forests land to be developed on private public participation.
