By IANS,
Mumbai : The Shiv Sena Friday lauded Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his state’s industrial growth and for attracting massive investments through the Vibrant Gujarat summit. It also urged the Maharashtra government to learn from the turnaround.
In an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna, the Sena praised Modi for saving his “doomed” state and catapulting it to the top position among industrialised states in the country.
The Sena said Modi was like a miracle – not only had he saved the sinking Gujarat ship, he had also turned it around to make it high-flying.
But in neighbouring Maharashtra, the situation was very different and only Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan knew what he was up to, the editorial said.
“Gujarat offers a stable administration, a corruption-free bureaucracy with a single power centre, Narendra Modi, lot of water and electricity, but no unionism,” it pointed out.
“In contrast, what does Maharashtra offer? Mumbai is being sold out to builders, politicians and bureaucrats…,” the editorial noted sarcastically in an oblique reference to the Adarsh Society scam.
The scam claimed the job of former chief minister Ashok Chavan after allegations surfaced of collusion between bureaucrats and politicians to corner flats in the 31-storey building in the posh Colaba area of south Mumbai originally meant for Kargil war widows and heroes.
It said that merely constructing huge towers in lands vacated by erstwhile textile mills was not enough and that the Maharashtra government must also learn how to attract big investments.
After all, there were emotional and historical bonds between the two states, and the state could learn a few lessons from Modi, the edit advised.
Narendra Modi had Thursday announced investment promises of Rs.20,83,000 crore ($462 billion) through 7,936 memoranda of understanding (MOUs), expected to generate employment opportunities for 5.2 million people as the fifth Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors summit 2011 ended in Gandhinagar.
Modi had earlier said that his state’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was 11 percent, which was more than that of China.