RAS question
The Rajasthan Canal (Indira Gandhi Canal) was formally inaugurated by:
Correct answer: (D) Govind Ballabh Pant (Home Minister, 1958).
The Rajasthan Canal, later known as the Indira Gandhi Canal, was formally inaugurated on 31 March 1958 by the then Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant.
Explanation
The Rajasthan Canal question turns on the date and office-holder at the start of construction, not on the canal's later name. The International Journal of Innovative Studies in Sociology and Humanities (IJISSH) article states that the Indira Gandhi Canal Project's construction started on 31 March 1958 and was inaugurated by the then Home Minister, Govind Ballabh Pant. The naming sequence also matters: it was the Rajasthan Canal at that point, and after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 it was renamed the Indira Gandhi Canal. That is why the answer is Govind Ballabh Pant, even though many aspirants instinctively associate the canal with Indira Gandhi because of its present name.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jawaharlal Nehru is wrong because Govind Ballabh Pant, not Nehru, was the Home Minister who inaugurated the construction on 31 March 1958.
- (B) Indira Gandhi is wrong because the canal was renamed after her in 1984, while the formal inauguration of construction had already taken place in 1958.
- (C) Morarji Desai is wrong because he is not connected with the canal's formal inauguration.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's post-Independence development history, especially major irrigation projects and their chronology. It recurs in RAS because the canal links state history, desert transformation and administrative facts that are often confused with later renaming.