Modi's woes: Will PM offer relief?

In his representation to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi submitted a memorandum on long pending issues of the state.

The Prime Minister was on his visit to Ahmedabad to attend the 46th annual convocation of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Saturday.

In his meeting with the PM at the circuit house, Modi raised the point of gas allocation to the power plants in Gujarat as already approved and also urged to correct the injustice suffered by the CNG vehicles owners in the form of frequent increase in the CNG prices.

He also pointed out that around 130 items, which were exempted from the central excise duty till date, have been proposed to be covered under the excise net, which will impose an extra burden on the common man already reeling under inflationary pressure.

In a release, the government informed that issues of pending approval for allocation of gas from KG basin to GPPC 702 MW gas-based power plant at Pipavav were also taken up in the meeting with the PM.

He also urged the PM that under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP), areas in the state covered under Desert Development Program (DDP) should be considered at par with the areas under Drought Prone Area Program (DPAP) as was done in the states of Punjab and Karnataka and accordingly, 90% financial assistance under AIBP should be provided for Narmada command area development under Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in an area of 8.73 lakh hectare.

Taking up the issue of Income Tax notice to the Gujarat government for the MoUs signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit, Modi criticised the move saying that it was totally unfair and that did not come under the purview of this department.

Prime Minister reportedly gave a patient hearing to the memorandum submitted by the chief minister and assured him of his personal intervention in the issues raised in memorandum.

Meanwhile, speaking at the 46th convocation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Modi urged the Central government to move towards creation of a "knowledge-based society" instead of mere skill development.

He said, "India will not grow only with skill development but knowledge-based society can only help in human resource development in India.Gujarat to some extent tried to achieve that at the recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011."

He also called for higher education institutes like IIMs and IITs to train students in policy making as well.