In assembly

He said the setting up of a House Committee to probe the project became necessary as the state government has not yet presented the report of a three-member committee comprising bureaucrats from three departments involved with the Narmada project. He said that work on only 19,000 km of the proposed 85,000 km canal network has been completed.

He said that besides raising the dam height,the state government should have also expedited the canal constructionwork. He said the state government has not yet completed the process of acquiring land for canal work.

Modhwadia added that the public debt of the state government,which was merely Rs 27,540 crore in 2000-2001,is likely to touch Rs 1,26,148 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 1,42,000 crore in Rs 2012-13.

Govt lost opportunity to present ‘zero tax hike’ budget: Congress
Congress legislators alleged that the state government had wasted an opportunity to come out with a zero tax budget in the golden jubilee year of the state’s formation.

Iqbal Patel,the chief whip of Congress Legislature Party,said panchayat presidents have been made helpless before district and taluka development officers. “Bureaucrats have become so powerful that a sarpanch cannot decide when to call a gramsabha meeting,” he said.

He said the public debt of the state government has trebled over the years. Senior Congress MLA Anil Joshiyara pointed out that 28 per cent of the tribal area in the eastern belt was still without electricity despite claims regarding Jyoti Gram Yojana.

He said the situation called for a detailed survey of these areas.

Congress leader Ramsinh Parmar alleged that the BJP had tarnished the image of a prestigious institution like Amul through elections in that body.

He however praised the state government for its irrigation and flood control measures.

Opposition criticises govt over taxes
The Opposition criticised the state government in the Assembly on Tuesday over taxation.

Opening the debate on Budget 2010-11 on Tuesday,Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil maintained that Gujarat had the highest rate of Value Added Tax in the country,in addition to a surcharge of 25 per cent on it.

Tax in excess of Rs 1 crore is due from 686 traders but no step has been taken to collect it,said Gohil.

He further said that had this been collected,the need to impose more taxes would not have arisen. Moreover,tax on second-hand vehicles is a burden on the middle class,he said.

Gohil said the increase in tax on tobacco and products made of it would only lead to rise in illegal trade with other states.

He also took exception to the application of 15 per cent tax on the chemical industry,which is a core industry in the state.

Tuesday in Assembly
Lion population
State Forest Minister Mangubhai Patel in a written reply told the state Assembly that there are 68 lions,100 lionesses and 123 cubs in Gir. He also informed the House that while one lion was killed by poachers,71 others died natural deaths. He,however,said there was no accidental death of lions.

He said that the government had taken a number of steps like constructing parapets around the open wells in fields within a radius of six kilometres of the Gir forest,building speed-breakers and restricting the speed of vehicles to 20 km per hour on roads inside the Gir forest.

Construction of boribunds
In response to a question by Niranjan Patel(Congress) as to why no probe was being ordered in the “irregularities” in construction of boribunds in the state,State Rural Development Minister Narottam Patel said that the government could order a probe only when a specific complaint about irregularities or corruption was received.

The minister said that while 90 per cent of the funds for boribunds came from Central grants under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,10 per cent was contributed by the state government.