Vibrant summit ’09 a sham, says opposition leader

Opposition leader, Shaktisinh Gohil termed the state government’s claims of attracting investments in the power sector as “hollow talks.".

He stated while giving details of MoUs signed up during Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit-2009.“In the power sector, the state government claimed investments through 31 MoUs worth Rs 2,11,895 crore and said it would generate employment for over 58,000 people. But none of these 31 MoUs have translated into anything for the state or for the people of Gujarat. Rather, these companies have used Vibrant Gujarat as a platform to inflate their share values and attract financial institutions for more funding. Also, there have been cases of land grabbing through such project announcements."

Gohil said that the government inked deals only with Adani and Essar despite interests expressed by a large number of companies during Vibrant Gujarat summits. He added that the companies coming forward to sign MoUs did it for the sake of publicity or to take undue advantage of the state resources.