Corruption alleged in earthquake relief

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, AUG.16. The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and the president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress, Mr. Amarsinh Chaudhary, has criticised the government's efforts in rehabilitating the earthquake-affected people and complained of large scale corruption in quake and drought relief operations.

Initiating the debate in the Assembly today on the budgetary demands for the revenue department, Mr. Chaudhary said though the Government announced several packages for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected, it failed miserably when it came to implementation of the same. Claiming large-scale corruption in implementation of the packages, he said only Rs.20 crores had reached the affected farmers out of the Rs.180 crores relief package announced for the farmers hit by the earthquake.

Strongly criticising the Government for its failure to impress upon the Centre to declare the January 26 earthquake as a national calamity and share the responsibility for the rehabilitation of the affected, Mr. Chaudhary said the way the State Government was trying to manage funds for the relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake-affected, the state exchequer would plunge in serious debts.

Pointing out that seven natural calamities had hit the State since the BJP came to power, Mr. Chaudhary was critical of the State Government's resource management efforts. He said already more than 35 per cent of the State's total budget go for debt servicing and if the Government was forced to take loans for the rehabilitation of the entire earthquake-affected, as was being planned by the administration, the future budgets would entirely have to be earmarked for debt servicing only seriously crippling the state's future developments.

He suspected mala fide intentions of the State Government in its industrial package and said the package seemed to had been designed only to benefit a few industrial houses. Similarly, the exemption from excise duty announced by the Centre would benefit a few and other industrial units, particularly cement, would be wiped out of the market due to undue benefits to some.

Mr. Chaudhary also said the condition that the benefit of the excise duty exemption would be given only to new units starting production within three years would not only force the existing units out of competition, even most of the new units would not be able to take the advantage for paucity of time.

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Section  : Other States
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