A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had snatched away land of the poor farmers and “gifted” it to Adani Group for developing Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ) on the western shores of Kutch district, Congress candidate for Kutch Lok Sabha seat - Dinesh Parmar - on Sunday targeted the same corporate house saying it had taken over government hospital in Bhuj. “On the one hand, the Congress-led Central government has enacted a low ensuring provision of 35 kg of food grain to the poor families for around Rs 100 per month. But on the other hand, the GK General Hospital, which is built on land worth Rs 750 crore at the cost of Rs 130 crore released from Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, has been given away to a private party,” said Parmar alleging that the BJP was anti-poor and anti-farmers. Parmar was addressing an election rally in Kotda-Chakar, a village 35 km west of Bhuj. The GK General Hospital was rebuilt after the 2001 earthquake in Kutch. However, the state government had handed over its administration to Adani three years ago. Narsinh Bhagat, husband of Kotda-Chakar village sarpanch Rasilaben, alleged that the state government was pressurising the panchayat to allow deep tube wells in the village to supply water to Adani’s MPSEZ. “The Gujarat Water Supply And Sewerage Board (GWSSB) has been telling us to pass a resolution to allow drilling of three tube wells near Chakar and draw water by setting up three pumps of 100 horse power capacity each. They want to supply this water to Adanis. But villagers have submitted to the panchayat that this will lead to depletion of groundwater resources and rob farmers of water for irrigating their crops. So the panchayat has adopted a resolution not to allow GWSSB to drill the tube wells,” said Bhagat. Mundra is around 36 km west of Kotda-Chakar. After Kotda-Chakar rally, Parmar attended a mass marriage ceremony in Mundra where 109 Muslim couples tied the knot. However, he refrained from making any political speech. But Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia indirectly blamed Adani for making land scarce for others. “There should be no dearth of land for building educational institutions and hospitals. But there is such a dearth. However, this should not stop us from making efforts,” Modhwadia said while addressing the gathering of Muslims in Kutch.
