Cong targets Guj govt over projects signed during Summit

Opposition Congress today targeted the BJP-led Gujarat government in the Assembly claiming that over 42 per cent projects signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2013 were yet to materialise.
During the question hour in Assembly here today, Congress MLA and party chief whip in Gujarat Assembly Balwantsinh Rajput sought details about the number of MoUs signed with corporates during the Summit.
Rajput also sought details about how many of these MoUs or investment intentions (IIs) had been dropped from the list.
In her written reply, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel said a total of 17,719 IIs had been signed during the 2013 Summit, out of which, 1,491 had been dropped, while 10,176 either got materialised or were in progress.

However, later in his press release Rajput said that the government did not provide the status of the remaining 6,052 projects.
"It was earlier claimed by the government that corporates will invest Rs 24 lakh crore through these 17,719IIs. The reply given by the CM claims that 10,176 projects have already started functioning, while 1491 were dropped," said Rajput through his press release.

"But there is no mention of the remaining 6,052 projects. Since the government hasn't put the status report in the House about these projects, I assume that they are also dropped, taking the total number of such shelved projects to 7,543 (which comes to 42 per cent)," claimed Rajput.

Congress MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja of Jamnagar also raised the same issue and sought to know the status of all the MoUs signed in Vibrant Summits of 2011 and 2013 for the projects in Jamnagar district.
In her reply, the Chief Minister said that out of 285 MoUs signed in 2011, 70 are in progress, while out of the 589 inked in 2013, 178 are under progress in Jamnagar.