MahaGujarat
Janta Party (MJP) president Gordhan Zadaphia on Wednesday rubbished Chief
Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of huge foreign direct investment (FDI) in the
state in the last five years, uninterrupted power, high employment and growth
in education sector.
“There
is a myth about development in Gujarat under
Modi. A lot of publicity was done about the five Vibrant Gujarat summits and
FDI of Rs 39.60 lakh crore. But the figures revealed through an RTI query show
actual investment was only Rs 1.85 lakh crore, which is just 4.68 per cent of
the proposed investment,” he told reporters here.
He
maintained while 17,701 MoUs were signed, only 1,907 projects were
commissioned.
Zadaphia,
who was minister of state for home in Modi’s cabinet before quitting the BJP
and floating his own party in 2007, claimed Modi had not revealed the real
figures of employment given to locals in the various industries set up in the
state.
While the proposed employment was
one crore, the actual employment figure as on November 30, 2011 was 2,98,714.
“Gujarat today stands fifth among states in terms of
growth while it was second under Keshubhai Patel’s chief ministership.
Entrepreneurship is inherent in the people of Gujarat,
it has nothing much to do with Modi being in power,” he said.
Zadaphia,
who is still close to RSS and its ideology, said he will field candidates
against BJP in all the 182 constituencies of Gujarat
in the forthcoming state polls.
“I
and my party workers go to RSS sakha (meetings). BJP still has to decide its
ideology. It is an opportunistic party. MJP Is the real BJP of Deen Dayal
Upadhyay (BJP ideologue),” he said.
Zadaphia
also alleged that Modi had provided undue sops to industrialists to set up shop
in Gujarat, which led to draining of the
exchequer.
These
business houses had not delivered on their side of the bargain and reneged on
providing employment to local people, he said.
Referring
to a major car manufacturing company, Zadaphia said it was given a Rs
33,000-crore waiver, stamp duty and registration fee exemption and free power.
However, the company has not kept its promise of giving 20 per cent jobs to
locals.
“Ministers
in Modi’s cabinet went around the world looking for FDI under Vibrant Gujarat
but nothing came of it,” Zadaphia claimed.
The
former minister alleged the state was lagging behind in Human Development Index
at the 10th position and stood at sixth position in per capita income.
He
said even the claims of 24 hour uninterrupted power supply to the whole
of Gujarat was a myth. “Gujarat is generating power at Rs 14
per unit and selling it to other states at Rs 3.50,” he claimed, adding
that
there were 4,50,000 pending applications for power connections in tribal
areas
of Gujarat.
“Farmers
get only eight hours of power when earlier they used to get 16 hours everyday,”
he said.
Zadaphia
also said the number of students enrolling for primary education in Gujarat had fallen by 14.50 lakh.
