Author: Shaktisinh Gohil

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Office of Shaktisinh Gohil

National Spokesperson, AICC & MLA, Abdasa

 PRESS RELEASE                                                              Dt: 29^th March, 2016

Congress members were removed from Gujarat Assembly by sergents just to prevent Congress from raising the issue of corruption in the Wildwood resort deal with which daughter of Chief Minister Anandiben Patel is associated, senior Congress leader and MLA from Abdasa Shaktisinh Gohil said today.

Talking to media after suspension of Congress MLAs for the day, Gohil said the government was trying to shield the corrupt deal. For this reason, he said, a resolution of Congress member Mahendra Bariya about Gir lions under Rule 117of the Assembly rules was rejected even though it was selected through draw system. The congress members were thrown out of the House when they were protesting against dropping of the resolution.

He said that the government feared that discussion on the Gir lions will bring about the matter of eco-sensitivity of the zone and its violation through deals like Wildwood resorts. He pointed out that resolution was cleared for discussion on Wednesday but was rejected. He said that resolution did not mention anything pending in the Court. Government had opposed the resolution on the ground that matter was subjudice, but there was nothing such, Gohil said.

However government feared that discussion would expose the deal in which land was given to the company of daughter of Chief Minister at the rate of Rs.6 during the time when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister. He quoted a ruling by Speaker on 26/9/2008 under which a subjudice matter could be discussed in the House. Despite this the resolution was dropped and request for reconsideration of decision was turned down.

He further pointed out that the jantri rate in the forest area was Rs. 180, commercial rate Rs.1260 and in reality no land was available for sale here. Despite this 7.5 lakh sq.ft of land was given to the daughter of CM at the rate of Rs.6 while a trust taking care of cows was asked to shell out money at the rate of Rs. 671. This exposes the BJP which claims love for cows and also working of the then CM Modi and minister Anandiben Patel.

Government rules prohibit any commercial activity within radius of five km of Gir forest but Anandiben’s daughter was given permission for resort within 1.5 km of the forest. Congress leaders also shouted slogans against mother-daughter saying Anar’s mother, creator of corruption.

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નર્મદા, પાણી પુરવઠા વિભાગ, વાહન વ્યવહાર વિભાગ, શ્રમ અને રોજગાર વિભાગની માગણીઓ પરની ચર્ચામાં ભાગ લેતા  શ્રી શક્તિસિંહજી ગોહિલ વિધાનસભામાં જે બોલ્યા હતા તેની ટ્રાન્સસ્ક્રીપ્ટ.

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Office of Shaktisinh Gohil

National Spokesperson, AICC & MLA, Abdasa

     Press Note                                                                       10^th March, 2016

The port Department of Gujarat has helped a private firm mint billions of rupees by overlooking working of the firm which was given the work of Vessel Tracking Management System at Gujarat ports, said Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil while speaking on budget proposals for 2016-17 in the State Assembly today.

He said that from the day one the deal between the company, M/s Aatash Norcontrol Ltd and Gujarat Maritime Board was fishy. First of all nowhere in the country, Vessel Tracking Management System is charged.

However, he said, in 2007 Gujarat govt accepted a proposal of Aatash Norcontrol that it would set up a vehicle traffic management at a cost not exceeding Rs 100 crore and would get maximum of Rs 15 crore per year by way of fees from vessels. But Aatash Norcontrol collected whooping Rs 1,49,37.28,065 in five years in excess to Rs 75 crore which Aatash Norcontrol was supposed to get in the five years starting from 2010 when it made vessel management system operation. He said that this was on assumption that company invested Rs 100 crore in setting up the system because till the date there was no audit of the investment by Aatash Norcontrol in vessel tracking management system. No one knows the investment of the company, he said. This is an example of progressive corruption in gateesheel Gujarat.

Referring to jetties in the state having coastline of 1600 kms, he said that there are eight jetties with cargo handling capacity of 97.55 Million MT, but these jetties handle only 50.37 MMT. And we talk of development of Gujarat, he remarked. In 2008-16, he said, Gujarat has not developed even a single port.

Talking about Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Gohil said that plot allotment policy for Alang Shipbreaking Yard was announced after a long delay and even that was not implemented properly. Despite reservation of 14 percent for SC and seven per cent for ST for allotment of plots they were not given. Thus a SC or ST is deprived of becoming a ship Breaker, he said. Even in the allotment of plots there is rampant corruption by officials of the Gujarat Maritime Board, Gohil asserted.

Speaking on demands of General Administration Department and Information Department, he said that MLAs are not perfect human beings but they are trustees of the interest of people and they should think about them. He said that the government had broken the democratic tradition of inviting opposition MLAs to government functions and printing their names on the invitation cards. He reminded the govt of a circular of GAD pointing out that the dept should not only acknowledge the receipt of letter of MLA but it should also ensure that the issue of the letter was addressed in a given time frame.

Without naming anyone, he cited a case in which a district official made it clear to a ruling party MLA that he would charge extra money for doing the work.  He drew the attention of the government to a Supreme Court ruling about norms for government advertisements saying that advertisements were contrary to this. Publications of Information Department should not be album of photographs of ministers but it should contain information that is useful for people.

He pointed out that earlier one vehicle used to bring journalists to sachivalaya daily, but it has been stopped. There is no easy access of journalists to ministers. He said that situation has become so worse that even accredited journalists were asked to get recommendation from minister when they ask for room in circuit house. He said that he details of such a case.

He said that Ministers deny even the promises they make in the House. He cited the case of statement of minister on March 17, 2015 when under Rule 44 he had told the House that potato growers would get subsidy of Rs 1150 per MT if they sold potato outside the state. However, in his reply to Congress MLA Govabhai Desai as per situation on June 30,2015 the minister  the government had made no promise of any subsidy to potato growers and so there was no question of any subsidy to any farmer of Banaskantha and Sabarkantha district. He said that it was very unfortunate and members should not be forced to move to Assurance Committee for not implementing announcements.

He said that government was talking about welfare of women, but young girls who were selected for class Two Conservator of Forest job in 2010 were still waiting for jobs. He ended his speech with a suggestion that Chief Minister should arrange for all members of House a show of Jai Gangaajal film to show a situation when people lose faith in system. He said Janta raids on liquor dens shows this loss of faith of people.

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