Press Note Eng Dt: 10/03/2016 on Ports & Transport, GAD, Information Dep
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Office of Shaktisinh Gohil
National Spokesperson, AICC & MLA, Abdasa
Press Note 10th 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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