Keshubhai finally leaves for Delhi

GANDHINAGAR, July 12: Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, accompanied by senior IAS officers, left Gandhinagar for Delhi this evening. During hi...

GANDHINAGAR, July 12: Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, accompanied by senior IAS officers, left Gandhinagar for Delhi this evening. During his two-day visit he is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister, the Union Finance Minister, the Planning Commission’s Vice-chairman and the Civil Supplies Minister, besides some senior BJP leaders.

The Chief Minister is visiting the National Capital for the first time since he assumed office in March last. The prolonged delay in his Delhi visit had attracted scathing criticism from the opposition Congress and the RJP leaders who had recently charged that, “Keshubhai has not bothered to visit Delhi and discuss various burning problems of Gujarat with Central leaders even after four months of his assuming office. Though his own party the BJP is leading the coalition government at the Centre, the CM has miserably failed to get problems facing the State solved. ”

During his visit to Delhi, the Chief Minister will make a strong representation to the Centre about financial assistance to the State to meet the expenditure on the extensive damages caused to private and public properties in the June 9 cyclone that hit the Kutch-Saurashtra coastline. The government has already submitted a detailed note to the Centre on the damages which has been estimated at Rs 2,100 crore.

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According to well-informed sources, Keshubhai will urge the Centre to allow the Gujarat Electricity Board to float bonds worth Rs 500 crore and also request the Rural Electrification Authority to allocate at least Rs 100 crore so as to restore, on a war footing, the GEB installations damaged badly in the cyclone.

The Chief Minister will apprise Planning Commission’s Vice-chairman Jaswant Singh of the government’s decision to increase the size of the State’s annual plan by 21 per cent and request the latter to approve the same.

Keshubhai will request the Centre to slash substantially the import duty on palmolein and also increase the quota of the palm oil to help stabilise the edible oil prices in the State.

He will register a protest against the induction of two anti-Narmada leaders in the World Commission for Dams set up by the World Bank recently, and also impress upon the Centre for the early completion of the Narmada dam project.

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Among the senior officials accompanying the Chief Minister are Chief Secretary L N S Mukundan, Principal Secretary to the CM P K Laheri, ACS, Finance K R Bhanujan, Principal Secretary, Energy, G Subbarao and ACS, Revenue P K Mishra.

Police personnel seen to control the situation during a massive protest over the statehood demand and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, in Leh on Wednesday. (ANI Video Grab)

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