Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Thursday,
October 24, 2013.
The
Gujarat government reportedly spent Rs 11.14 crore on ferrying people in buses
to the Sadbhavana fast venues in 2011 and spent Rs 28,000 on buying skull caps
for the Navsari edition of Sadbhavana, according to Act Now for Harmony And
Democracy (ANHAD), an NGO, and other social activists at a press conference
here on Wednesday. WIth the data acquired under the Right to Information Act
(RTI), Anhad launched, ‘kachcha chittha’ a serial “expose on Chief Minister
Narendra Modi”.
Dev
Desai, Gujarat co-ordinator of ANHAD, said, “I had filed RTI for other
districts as well but only got information for Navsari. If he is spending
28,000 on only skull caps for one programme, wonder how much have been spent on
caps alon.” Another volunteer, Hemant Shah, a professor of economics at the HK
Arts college in Ahmedabad said, “Modi tried to justify diversion of huge amount
of funds from Central schemes by citing a general circular that suggested
promotion of communal harmony in states. Neither the 2012-13 budget nor 2013-14
had any mention of Sadbhavna Upvas or expenditure done on it even though it was
launched a year back on September 17, 2011. Further, in the supplementary
statement presented in the Assembly on February 21, 2012, it was referred to as
‘New Service’. The volunteers claimed they had collected this information
“partly through confidential sources and partly under RTI”.
Desai
said, “The information available with us is for expenditure on buses that were
used to bring people to Modi’s Sadbhavna Upvas for 24 out of 34 programmes
across the state. Due to the non-availability of supportive documents, we do
not have details of other expenses, including food, gifts and CM’s travel by
helicopters. Thus, if total cost is calculated, it will be a mind-boggling
misuse of public funds for the whims of one person.”
Gujarat
government spokesperson and finance minister Nitin Patel, when contacted, said,
“They are our rivals. They will make any sort of allegations. It is totally
baseless.” He further said, “If a neutral person makes allegations then we may
consider. But this allegation is coming from a rival.”
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