‘Govt did not take any overdraft in last 3 yrs’

He said,besides this,the government had a Sinking Fund of Rs 5,000 crore and a Guarantee Fund of Rs 3,000 crore to which these were the additions each year. The situation of availing overdraft came much later after exhausting other low interest options.

He said no state government could go for high amount loans at its own free will subject to the Central government’s approval. On this score too,the state government was in a convenient position,he said. The interest on advances would be four per cent (one per cent less that the RBI Repo rate),which the interest on overdraft would be at seven per cent.

In reply to a question from Ramsinh Parmar,Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Fakirbhai Vaghela assured the House that the beneficiaries of direct loans scheme of the state government via the Minorities Finance Corporation will be taken out of the loop in the cases where recovery agents issuing them receipts of amount recovered but failed to deposit the same with the Corporation.

Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Shaktisinh Gohil said he had instances on record where recovery agents would not deposit loan dues with the Corporation in due course.

Vaghela informed the House that the state government had spent Rs 16.76 lakh to provide monetary assistance to persons suffering from diseases like cancer,HIV/AIDS,TB,leprosy and certain gynae diseases.

Vaghela also refuted the Opposition charge that only references from the BJP legislators were being entertained. When a member alleged that he could not help a patient but his request through a BJP legislator was granted in the same case,the minister assured the House that due care will be taken in such matters as and when brought to his notice.

In reply to another question by Chandubhai Dabhi,Vaghela said as many as 176 child labourers were detected in Ahmedabad city and district following checking of 5,888 units in two years during 2008-10. In this,cases under the Anti-Child Labour Act were filed against 113 units. In Vadodara city and district,52 child labourers were rescued from 52 units of the 7,622 searched. A total of 228 child labourers were found,of whom 137 belonged to Gujarat and the remaining 91 were from other states.

Elsewhere,the state government admitted that staff crunch in the Commercial Tax Department affected work. Vala told Pragjibhai Patel that there were 126 Class IV,840 Class III,92 Class II and 91 Class I vacancies.

He said in a written reply to Khumansinh Chauhan that recruitment is on and that as of January 31 this year,income from Value Added Tax was Rs 13,919.89 crore (net).

He said the income in 2007-08 was Rs 15,104.54 crore and Rs 16,810.65 crore in 2008-09.