Gujarat gaurav Narendra Modi could well be called the ‘Gujarat Goebbels’ for his innate ability to use propaganda to project himself.
By RK Misra
Why should a news story always be like a deadly damsel, flowing sinuously with sharp, chiseled features that floor and heaving contours that arrest, both issues and attention? Why can’t it be like a fits and starts outpourings from a WWF fame Khali like muscular mind, spilling its precious bounty erratically, yet delivering precisely primed and tellingly cogent results. Let’s try.
Gujarat’s human dynamo Narendra Modi has the distinction of being the longest serving chief minister of the state having savoured power for more than a decade at a stretch. He has been certified by Indian trade and industry stalwarts as prime minister material. Every time Gujarat holds its biennial global investor’s summit there is a traffic jam at the Ahmedabad airport as business barons converge in their private planes. Later at the function each one parrots paeans for the ‘glocal’(a Modi coinage welding global with local) implementation and legendary vision of the helmsman.
The secret of the air jam and land rush was out of the closet recently when it came to be known that the Modi-led Gujarat government has allotted a whopping 38,289 acres or more than 155 sqkm of land in the last five years to industry .And there is no let up to date. Private land being exorbitantly costly and involving lengthy procedural problems, business houses have been making a beeline for the government to get land at concessional rates.
Reliance, Tata and the Adani Group have emerged as the largest government land buyers, accounting for 4,830 hectares in the last three years. The land is valued at Rs 377.97 crore. Incidentally, the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has created a land bank of more than 26,000 hectares.
The Congress opposition has been shrill in charging that Leading industrial houses like the Tatas, Adani and Essar have been the major beneficiaries of the Modi government’s largesse.
The government is on record admitting in the state Assembly that Essar Ltd had encroached large chunks of forest land worth Rs 250 crore in Hazira. “Essar has scrapped the SEZ status for its upcoming project in Hazira for which it was given government land. Besides, Tata has been given 1031 hectares of land for its IT project, two years ago,” Congress leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil stated on the floor of the House.
By the same reckoning, Adanis have been forked about 3.15 crore sq m of land for its Mundra Special Economic Zone in Kutch.
“Adani group was given land in Sekhadia village for only Rs 8 per metre. As per Central government rule, a developer cannot sell land meant for SEZ purpose. However, Gujarat government had its own designs. The industrialist has sold land at thousands of rupees per metre,” Gohil charged.
More skeletons came tumbling out when revenue minister Anandiben Patel admitted in response to a starred question on March 3 from Congress MLA Babu Meghji Shah from kutch, “Yes, the state government has allotted government land to Tata Power at below Jantri rates. The government has offered land to Tata at Rs 135 and Rs 137 less than the prices offered to private land owners.”
The Jantri rate, a ready reckoner for fixing stamp duty, is fixed by state government and is often lower than the prevailing market rates. The government had given land to Tata that was worth Rs 600 crore for just Rs 4 crore, according to the Congress leader.
Gohil said that information gleaned from the government under the Right to Information Act had brought out that that Gujarat government has allotted 7669 hectares for six SEZs, which include grassland to the tune of 1,549 hectares. The data placed in the Assembly indicates that the state government has allotted 4830 hectares to Reliance, Tata and Adani Group over period of last three years. Reliance has been given 1,333 hectares for its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Jamnagar in addition to 57 hectares for marine tank farm well as 1225 sqmt for refinery related works.
The Tata Group has been provided 1476 hectares, which include 1031 hectares for its information technology (IT) project in Gandhinagar to be set up by Tata Consultancy Ltd and 445 hectares for the much-hyped Nano car project in Ahmedabad. The Adani Group has been allotted 1964 hectares of land for its SEZ project in Kutch.
It is pertinent to note that the Gujarat government in its budget estimates) for the year 2010-2011, had proposed to acquire 31,241 hectares during fiscal 2010-11 for industrial development through its public sector corporation GIDC (Gujarat industrial development corporation). Meanwhile Congress leader Siddarth Patel while participating in the discussion on the budget in the state Assembly has pointed out that the Public debt of the state is set to rise to Rs 1.40 lakh crores in the fiscal year 2012-13 from the current fiscal figure of Rs 1.25 lakh crores.
He has predicted a rise of over 15 per cent in the outgo towards debt servicing. “Gujarat’s debt payment will rise to Rs 21000 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 18500 crore in the current fiscal. The state paid Rs 12000 crore as interest during the current fiscal while the payment towards the principal was Rs 6500 crore. The economic condition is so bad that the government has to borrow to repay the interest on debt,” Patel said.