E-gram launch: Cong lambasts Modi for inviting Sunil Mittal

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Arjun Modhwadia,on Friday,took strong exception to Chief Minister Narendra Modi inviting Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal as chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of the e-gram project at Bardoli.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Arjun Modhwadia,on Friday,took strong exception to Chief Minister Narendra Modi inviting Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal as chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of the e-gram project at Bardoli.

The former Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly said that inviting a contractor undertaking the project as chief guest was not only violation of the protocol,but it also showed the level to which the chief minister had stooped to please the corporate honchos.

It is really very shameful that a contractor was made the chief guest by a chief minister, he said.

Pointing out that the project has been financed completely by the Centre,Madhwadia said it would have been appropriate if Modi had invited the Union communication minister as the project was a part of the latters ministry.

The Congress leader warned industrialists,including Mittal,against becoming a part of the political game plan of Modi for certain concessions. He said the UPA government at the Centre in the last four years had provided a sum of Rs 155 crore for implementing the project in Gujarat against Rs 19 crore given to the state for the purpose during the BJP-led NDA rule.

Under the national e-governance plan,all the 18,000 villages,including 13,000 village panchayats,in the state are to be given Internet facility connecting them with talukas,district headquarters and the state capital.

The project has already been implemented in four states,including Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka and Pondicherry.

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