The Hindu : Front Page : Is Gujarat discriminated against by the Centre?

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Sunday, Apr 19, 2009
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Is Gujarat discriminated against by the Centre?

Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad

No, says the Congress, which has dug up official statistics to show that more has been done by the UPA government than the NDA ever did

Arjun Modhvadia... countering Modi.

The Congress in Gujarat is usually on the defensive, trying to fend off onslaughts by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But now, the Congress may have found an issue to attack Mr. Modi and “nail his lies” that the Congress-led UPA government in New Delhi had always been unjust to Gujarat.

According to the statistics collected by the former Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Arjun Modhvadia, if any “injustice” was done to Gujarat, it was during the regime of the BJP-led NDA government in Delhi.

The statistics — which were acquired from the State government and the Centre by using the Right to Information Act — apparently show that Central aid to Gujarat during the UPA regime was far greater than the assistance given when the NDA was in power. It was over Rs. 60,000 crore in the first four years of the Manmohan Singh government compared to Rs. 26,000 crore in the corresponding period when Atal Behari Vajpayee was at the helm.

The UPA government contributed more even to the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, which Mr. Advani has represented for the last 16 years. Mr. Advani has done a severe injustice to Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad and Gujarat, both as MP from the State and the Deputy Prime Minister, according to Congress sources.

While in power, Mr. Advani had not cleared a single major project for the State, but the UPA regime had gifted Gandhinagar two world class educational institutions — the Indian Institute of Technology, and the Gandhinagar campus of the National Institute of Design. It also connected the State capital to the national railway network with the services of the “Garib Rath” trains, provided a Rs. 100 crore special sanction for upgrading the Ahmedabad civil hospital, and an additional Rs. 2,200 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission for drainage, water, transport, roads and other projects.

To top it all, it gave Ahmedabad the status of a mega city. “What has Mr. Advani done for his constituency and Gujarat?” the Congress asks.

Mr. Modhvadia says he obtained the statistics both from the State government and Central government departments — except for railways, petroleum, national highways and such other ministries directly under the Centre — to ensure that Mr. Modi could not dismiss the statistics as “cooked up.”

He has challenged Mr. Modi to prove him wrong. “My every statement is supported by documentary evidence,” he claims.

The Congress is also ready to counter Mr. Modi’s claim that the Centre gets much more from the State through taxes than the assistance it provides to Gujarat, saying that official figures show the opposite.

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