The Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat unit on Saturday condemned the alleged discriminatory tactics of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre against the State and regretted that its “failures and blunders” had lowered the prestige of the country among the comity of nations in the world.
A political resolution adopted on the first day of the two-day meeting of the State executive of the party said it was the Centre's “conspiracy” to allow continued devaluation of the rupee against dollar to ruin the country's economy despite the leadership of an economist as the Prime Minister. The meeting called upon the party workers in the State to “educate” every individual in Gujarat about the ‘dismal failure' of the UPA government at all fronts.
Threatens agitation
Alleging that the Centre was adopting step-motherly treatment to Gujarat just because the people in the State had voted the BJP to power, the resolution threatened to launch a State-wide agitation against the Centre's discriminatory tactics.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and BJP national vice-president Purshottam Rupala were along those attending the meeting being held under the chairmanship of the State party president R. C. Faldu. The state BJP spokesman I. K. Jadeja, said the meeting would draw plans for the party strategy to contest the State Assembly elections scheduled later this year.
Listing the “injustices” to Gujarat by the Centre, the resolution claimed that construction of none of the national highways in the State announced by the national highway authority when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister, had been started by the UPA government even eight years after the NDA rule. The Centre had earned over Rs. 5,500 crore from the people of Gujarat from the road tax on petrol, but had given back only Rs. 1,400 crore while its contribution to Andhra Pradesh was over Rs. 4.200 crore and to Uttar Pradesh was over Rs. 10,000 crore.
Coastal security project
The Rs. 392-crore coastal security project had been shelved for the last seven years despite Gujarat being a sensitive coastal State, it was also denying the State its due share of Rs. 3,525 crore against compensation from the Central Sales Tax levied from the people of Gujarat.
Injustices was also being committed in respect of pricing of gas allocated to Gujarat compared to the charges levied in Mumbai, Delhi and some other major cities in the country and in respect of allocation of poor man's fuel, kerosene, the Centre imposed a 32 per cent cut on Gujarat's quota while the cut was a mere 0.66 per cent for Odisha, 0.15 per cent for Assam and 0.09 per cent for West Bengal. Though Gujarat was the first State to implement solar power projects, discrimination had been shown in allocation of the Central sector power between the BJP-ruled Gujarat and the Congress-ruled Rajasthan. While Rajasthan had been allocated 878 MW of power, Gujarat had been given a share of mere 20 MW, it regretted. Similar discriminatory tactics were also being adopted in respect of allocation of fertilizers, the Central assistance to the families living below the poverty line, and the Narmada dam project among other major issues facing the state, it said.
