Modi bashes Centre at Pravasi meet

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the Centre for discriminating those states ruled by opposition parties, and claimed that whatever his state managed to achieve and develop so far, were through its own efforts  and not with the “blessings of the Centre”.

Modi was speaking on ‘Global Indian  States’ Initiatives and Opportunities’, during the celebration of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas  (PBD) here on Monday. Apart from Modi, only two   chief ministers, Oommen Chanday of Kerala and Arjun Munda of Jharkhand, attended  the meeting.

Dumping a copy of his  spe­ech , the Gujarat chief minister used the occasion to lambast at the Centre; he said, there was no response from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his suggestion to set up a solar production unit in the arid regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat along the Indo-Pak border.

“Rajasthan’s chief minister said he has the blessings of the Central government and the prime minister. But, we aren’t that fortunate, we’ve to do everything on our own,” he said.

Claiming that Gujarat does not seek funds from the Centre for its developmental projects, the chief minister said he once wrote a letter to the prime minister asking him to set-up a satellite for Gujarat, but the Centre was “confused” on what should be done.

“I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister last year. Usually, chief ministers write to the Prime Minister asking for funds. I never write letters seeking for funds; this letter was written asking him to allot a satellite for Gujarat. But the Centre seemed very confused”, he said.

However, he said that the state received a full-fledged transponder of 36 MHz Q-band on Indian Space Communication Satellite, that enables the state to implement long distance education system across 12 sectors at a time, thus enhancing the system of governance, distance learning programme and tele-medicine.