Maharashtra minister lashes out at NDA misrule

MANDATE 2004

Maharashtra's Home Minister RR Patil had said last week more than 7,000 factories had been sold off over the four-and-a-half year rule of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Addressing an election rally for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) parliamentary candidate from Kolhapur, Sadashivrao Mandlik at Kasabwada, a suburb of Kolhapur, Patil added, "Seven months back the same government sought to sell off an entire river in Madhya Pradesh. Only three months back the Nhava Sheva port was sought to be sold to a foreign firm."

Patil claimed that the last four-and-a-half years of NDA rule has witnessed 2,900 starvation deaths in the country, even as 4.5 lakh tonnes of surplus foodgrains were contained in the government godowns.

"There is surplus sugar and yet 83 lakh tonne of the commodity is being imported from other countries. The same is the case with oranges, lime, apples. When questioned, Prime Minister Vajpayee says that this will encourage a healthy competition. Is this a fair contest between poor farmers and the international markets? Nearly 50 per cent of factories have shut down, the debt owed by farmers in the country has more than doubled in the last five years, 50 lakh people have lost jobs and there are more than 10 crore unemployed people in India. Yet the BJP claims India is shining," he said.