Ex-CMs play politics ahead of Narmada’s opening
By TNN |
Highlights
AHMEDABAD: Even as Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will formally dedicate the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam project to the country on Friday, four former Congress chief ministers will boycott the celebration.
Congress invitees, former chief ministers Shankarsinh Vaghela, Dilip Parikh, Madhavsinh Solanki and Chhabildas Mehta on Thursday announced their decision to boycott the ���publicity stunt by Modi���.
Addressing a press gathering at the Congress headquarters here, the leaders said that they have received invites on behalf of the chief minister but are in no mood to join the celebrations. ���The project is half-baked and the state government should not have hurried on with the celebrations before achieving all the targets set for the project,��� former chief minister and union textiles minister Shankarsinh Vaghela said.
���What is the state goevernment so elated about when majority regions of Saurashtra-Kutch are yet to get water. Although it was late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who cleared the project despite hurdles on various grounds, the BJP-led state governement will not accept Congress��� contribution to the project and instead, carry it off as its own achievement,��� Mr Vaghela added.
���The chief minister���s ���five-star fast��� on April 15 last year to protest against SSNNL review committee���s decision against increasing the dam height was also a stunt. He hasn���t achieved anything practically through the dam so far except political gains,��� he said.
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���The SSNNL project���s objective is far from over. As against 8,000 parched villages that were to get the Narmada waters, a mere 2,500 have been reached until now,��� said Mr Dilip Parikh.Download
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