Governor’s address to House far from ground realities, says Chavda

Opposing the proposal, Chavda said the Governor’s address to the House is far from the ground realities and based on the information provided to him by the government. He claimed that because of the lack of employment and a policy to address it, of the 1.32 crore families in Gujarat, 72 lakh families have to stand in queue to get food.

“Earlier, we had heard of only fake degree, but now we have fake currency notes, fake CMO official, fake PMO official, fake MLA, fake PA, fake government office, fake vigilance team, fake police, fake toll booth. As if fake rice and fake ghee were not enough, now fake syrup and fake liquor have become available in your regime. Fake is everywhere,” Chavda said.

He added, “For the last one-and-a-half years, elections to local institutes of self-governance have not been held. Earlier, they were making the excuse of Jhaveri Commission. Months have passed since Jhaveri Commission submitted its report. Today, instead of elected members, institutes of local self-governance are ruled by administrators.”

The Jhaveri Commission was appointed by the Gujarat government in July 2022 to make recommendations to the state to fix reservation quota in the election of local bodies.

“Today, in 5,000 gram panchayats of Gujarat, there are administrators; 75 nagarpalikas and 18 taluka panchayats have administrators. Because no elections have been held, a number of people’s representatives are away from administration. All members of the House would know how much corruption is being done by these administrators. The government wants to administer through its favourite administrators. I request the government to hold elections at the earliest and stop the rule of administrators,” Chavda said.

He alleged the state has become the “landing hub” of drugs and is on way of becoming “Udta Gujarat”. Citing the alcohol ban relaxation at GIFT City, Chavda said the government has started giving back-door relaxations in the name of development.