‘Reimaging Vadodara’ series: Other cities of Gujarat advanced yrs ago, says Samarjitsinh Gaekwad

Addressing the symposium, which is in its second leg to brainstorm for Vadodara’s future, Gaekwad urged the stakeholders to exploit the potential of the city, highlighting that other cities of Gujarat, when compared to Vadodara, had advanced years ago.

Bringing up the nagging issue of finding an administrative head for the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) — which is a major stakeholder of the ongoing symposium — Gaekwad said that the number of municipal commissioners that Vadodara has seen in the last few years is a reflection of the city being a “difficult” set-up to work in.

He said, “We keep hearing that nobody wants to become the municipal commissioner of Vadodara. The number of officers who have become the commissioner in the last few years is an indication of that…Why is that so? It is not the fault of the officers because they have probably been told that this is a difficult environment to work in. The onus is on us as citizens, what have we made of this city? What did Maharaja Sayajirao (Gaekwad III) do that made this city a magnet? He brought the best people to work here (in erstwhile Baroda state)… Everyone wanted to come here and get a stamp of Baroda.”

On the “development” of other cities, Gaekwad said, “As children in the 1980s, we used to visit Udhna (Surat) often for our factory Baroda Rayon. I have no hesitation to say that it (Udhna) was the filthiest city in 1980s… It took one plague to change (Surat) and since then the city has been flying and it is an incredible story in itself. Ahmedabad has seen development by the virtue of being the de-facto capital city.”

“But where are we (Vadodara)? We do not have ranking so we won’t know… This city has a great potential, what keeps Vadodara ahead of the rest of the cities in Gujarat is that we are cosmopolitan. People who are not from Gujarat, find Baroda the most attractive and appealing city and it is a compliment to the people. Sayajirao (Gaekwad III) brought everything here and it flourished. We must use the momentum to take the city forward,” he added. Rajput highlighted the achievements of Gujarat during the chief ministership of Narendra Modi from 2002, emphasising that the state is a “leader” in the story of development of India.

Highlighting the recent Rs 22,000-crore MoU inked between Micron and Gujarat government for setting up the semiconductor plant in Sanand, Rajput said: “During the US visit of PM Modi, the semiconductor company only declared that it wants to start a factory in India. On the sixth day, the government of Gujarat gave land and also signed the MoU to seal the Rs 22,000-cr deal for the state. Similarly, we are going to have a green power plant in Kutch… The development of India has the Gujarat development model behind it.”

Rajput said that between 2002 and 2023, the “condition of Gujarat” has improved manifold. “Our GDP in 2002 was Rs 2 lakh crore… Today, it is Rs 16 lakh crore. We have a separate MSP department. Today, we have 10.8 lakh industrialists and 16.19 crore lakh industrial and trade set-ups. The cargo that used to be handled in Gujarat has gone up to 53 lakh crore metric tonne in 2023 from 1,200 metric tonne in 2002. Almost 18 per cent of India’s manufacturing takes place in Gujarat. This has been possible because of the team work led by PM Modi as the CM of Gujarat.”