Bhopal: After one year of his rule in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav spoke to HT on a number of issues, including his vision for the state, reducing bulldozer action in over the past year and the court’s interim order on places of worship. Act.

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Edited excerpts:

You took over as CM from Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who held the post for almost 20 years. How has your approach changed since you took over? The job was new and there were challenges for me. Our BJP government was in power for a long time and it was led by Shivraj ji with his own identity. It is true that I was very junior to Shivraj ji, but I took his work forward and got support from everyone, including him. I have no personal agenda and have focused on my administrative skills, which were taught to me during Swayamsevak training, and carried the responsibility given to me.

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The Supreme Court has bulldozed justice. After UP, MP demolished maximum properties of people accused of different crimes. What is your opinion on the order? As I said earlier, bulldozing is not part of our tradition and I have never been in favor of it. I welcome this decision because illegal houses must be demolished after following all the legal procedure. We will take action against the accused in accordance with the law.

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The Supreme Court also stayed all proceedings in court regarding temple claims in mosques and dargahs across India until it decides on the petition challenging the worship law. How do you see it?

When people ask me how I feel about the courts being brought in to reclaim land, I always say that I feel happy that people went to the court instead of taking the law into their own hands. This means that people do not create ruckus in a religious place and are following the law by approaching the court to seek correction of the mistake committed in the past. There’s nothing wrong with that. If the court finds it fair, it will rule in our favor. Otherwise, we will stay at home. I am not in favor of creating ruckus and fighting on the road for it.

What are your achievements during the first year of your government as a deputy? We have successfully resolved the problem of the world’s first two river link projects, which have been pending for 20 years, and the foundation stone will be laid this month only. The Ken-Betwa and Parvati Sindh and Chambal projects were the vision of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to see their successful implementation. We are happy to have resolved the issue by sitting down with Rajasthan and UP.

The focus is on securing investment. Recently you visited Germany and the United Kingdom and the state is considering foreign investment. What’s the plan? Within the state, you have held at least six regional industrial conclaves. How much investment has actually been made. We will consider 2025 as an investment year. At the regional conclave, we received investment proposals from more than ₹four lakh crore and we are happy with it. During the conclaves, I became general director, abandoning the role of CM. I spend all my time with investors to establish mutual understanding so that they can invest in the state without fear.

Before the assembly elections, the BJP had promised in its manifesto to increase the amount of Ladli Behna and special bonuses on wheat, paddy and other crops. The state government is drowning in debt of more than ₹3 lakh. How do you plan to keep the election promises?All the survey promises will be kept as we will also focus on increasing our revenue. We install solar pumps to save money paid as electricity subsidy. Similarly, we have merged two health and medical education departments for better coordination and cost savings. Debt is not an issue at all as we have taken a loan within the prescribed limit of the RBI. People are making this an issue unnecessarily.

There appears to be some opposition from the politically most important cabinet ministers regarding spending on Ujjain, your hometown. How do you plan to deal with it? No one is superior to a chief minister. The chief minister is the chief minister and the minister is the minister. In the firm, everyone has the right to express their point of view, otherwise the model will have to sit down. On the issue of Ujjain road development, there may be curiosity, but there is nothing like opposition. We have only three years left for Simhastha and we also have three rainy seasons. It is therefore necessary to make a decision now on the entire development project. We expected 150 million people to visit the fair.

Previous chief ministers focused on Lord Shiva and Lord Ram and you paid special attention to Lord Krishna. Is there any particular reason behind this? Yes, there is a special reason behind this. Lord Krishna has many national and international followers. In Madhya Pradesh, there are many places visited by Lord Krishna. He learned everything at Sandipani Ashram in Ujjain. There is a place where he fought with his Rukmani and spent the night with his friend Sudama. We are trying to arrange the place so that his disciple, who goes to Mathura and Dwarka, also comes to Ujjain and other places in MP. This will boost religious tourism.