Cong will even invite Hafiz Saeed, if it helps win polls: Guj DyCM

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Tuesday hit out at the Congress, saying the party will go to the extent of inviting terrorists like Hafiz Saeed to the state, if doing so helps it form the government.   

“If Congress feels they can win the Assembly polls in Gujarat by joining hands with Pakistan-based terrorists like Hafiz Saeed or any such people, they will, without any hesitation, send them an invitation,” Patel told reporters here. 

Hafiz, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawaa, is the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and carries a bounty of $10 million offered by the US government on his head since 2014.

Patel charged the Congress with resorting to caste-based politics by invoking its KHAM theory (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) floated by the then chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki in the 1980s.

"BJP practises Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas and Congress continues to indulge in the divide and rule policy,” he said.

The deputy chief minister said the state would now bear the GST levied on equipment deployed by farmers for drip irrigation.

“The government will pay the 18% GST levied on the farm equipment,” he said.

Currently, tribal farmers get 90% and other farmers get 70%-80% as subsidy for drip irrigation equipment in the state. The move is expected to cost the state exchequer about Rs 78 crore.

Hike for ASHA workers

He announced that the government would increase the pay of over 40,000 ASHA workers employed in pre-primary and primary schools by up to 50%.

The ASHA workers have been agitating for almost a year. This will cost the exchequer Rs 58 crore.

Patel agitation leader Hardik Patel, meanwhile, said the slew of announcements by the BJP government shows their desperation.

“They have done nothing in the last five years and in the few days before the elections are announced, they are making a number of announcements. We don’t know whether and when they will be implemented,” he said.