MSN.com
This year's (Vibrant Gujarat) extravaganza, with even more of the cream of Indian business in adulatory attendance, netted promises of investments amounting to Rs 12,00,000 crore (Rs 12,000 billion) -- a colossal tribute to Modi's reputation for ruthless efficiency.....
But what never came out at the Vibrant Gujarat summit nor in any papers or TV channels are some shocking revelations about Modi's Gujarat:
- School drop out rates still high: The Annual Status of Education Report Rural 2008, the most telling document on education trends, shows 21 per cent of the boys and 30 per cent of girls in the 15-16 age group in rural Gujarat dropping out of school. Worse, the younger children are simply not getting a proper education. Only 59.6 per cent rural children in the Standard 3 to 5 group could read the Standard 1 text against the all-India average of 66.6 per cent. In maths, they fared worse: only 43.1 per cent could do subtraction against the national average of 54.9 per cent, way behind the figures for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
- Dwindling sex ratio: Surely, something is rotten in the state of Gujarat? Perhaps, his business fan following is not aware that Gujarat under Modi has fared worse than most states on almost every index of human development, the worst blot being the dwindling sex ratio. The number of girls per 1,000 boys in Gujarat is just 878, one of the lowest in the country, despite the growing prosperity of the state -- or perhaps because of it.
- Gujarat slipped from 1 to 6: The poor indices of overall human development -- Gujarat has slipped from first spot to sixth place among Indian states -- are a deeply worrying issue for social scientists who have also been sounding the alarm bells on the fragmentation and ghettoisation of Gujarat's society.
- The truth behind the Nano deal: According to one estimate, tax-payers in Gujarat will be footing as much as Rs 60,000 per vehicle to make the Nano the car of the masses with a price tag of Rs 1 lakh...It's a dream package that Modi is giving the Tatas: apart from the 1,100 acres of land and infrastructure sops, there is a soft loan of Rs 9,570 crore (Rs 95.7 billion) that is repayable over 20 years at an unbelievable 0.1 per cent rate of interest.Facilities for solid-waste disposal and effluent treatment plants are to be developed by the state government which will also provide a dedicated power connection of 200 KW to the factory along with 14,000 cubic metres water daily. There are other dispensations, too.The Nano project does not have to recruit 85 per cent of the workforce locally as the state industrial policy mandates.
How can one not love Modi if public money is to fund private industry to this extent?
1 comment:
What is about the Rehabilitation policy of Urban poors and utilising ULC land for the construction of EWS / BPL houses.
It is the policy of all the International Financial Institutions such as World Bank and others to see that the Project affected Peoples should be properly rehabitated.
In Sabarmati River Front Development Project 36ooo families are displced with out any plan to rehabilitate them.
The Maharstra Government having Cutt-off - date 1995 for the Slum Dwellers while the Gujarat Govt. has cut-of date 1976 January.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corportion has no land to rehabilitate EWS people those are residing in city upto 1995 but now say there cut-off-date is 1976 as per Judgment of APEX Court in Nawab Khan Vs AMC.
This is the progress of Modiji in Vibrant Gujarat for big Industrialists where no place for rehabilitation of poor persons those are displaced from big projects.
Post a Comment