TNN
Ahmedabad, Apr 11: Though belated, Congress has laboriously compiled department-wise allocations of grants to Gujarat during UPA and NDA regimes into a book, to get a point across. The book, The voice of truth: The hand of Congress in growth of Gujarat , was released here on Friday.
Congress leaders challenged NDA prime ministerial candidate and Chief Minister Narendra Modi to come forth and debate on allocation of grants to Gujarat. Modi had earlier planned the electoral battle on Centre vs state lines.
Congress spokesperson Arjun Modhvadia who has compiled the book, said that during NDA rule between 1999 and 2004, Gujarat received Rs 26,000 crore as grants while during UPA rule between 2004 and 2009, state has received over 60,000 crore as grant.
He added, "After UPA came to power at Centre in 2004, it has become a passion for Modi and BJP to allege injustice to Gujarat. He said that analysing the information received under Right to Information Act provided by Centre and Gujarat government, it was found that UPA has multiplied their allocation of funds in all spheres of activities in Gujarat."
He added that he wanted the document to become a matter of analytical study for politicians academicians and social workers. Several senior leaders like Union minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Dinsha Patel, Gujarat in-charge general secretary BK Hariprasad and other state leaders were also present on the occasion.
"Advani who had represented Gandhinagar as deputy PM had failed to sanction any new project for the capital but the Manmohan Singh government sanctioned two new campuses for Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Design. Besides, the capital also has rail connectivity which was not there during NDA rule.
He further said that Centre has approved Ahmedabad Civil Hospital as National Institute of Health and under this project, a grant of Rs 100 crore has been sanctioned.
According to him, Modi has been claiming that centre was collecting huge taxes from state and in return giving insignificant amounts to Gujarat. He said that of the Rs 11,000 crore tax collected, state was getting Rs 6,500 crore, against just Rs 1,605 crore during NDA rule.