Gandhinagar: The Congress on Monday claimed
that corporate lobbyist Nira Radia had mediated the deal
between Tata Motors and Gujarat government for setting up the
Anon car manufacturing unit in Sanand, leading to an uproar in
the state assembly.
Congress MLA from Porbander Arjun Modhvadia alleged
that because of Radia's mediation in the Nano deal, Tata could
walk away with freebies worth Rs 29,000 crore.
He claimed he had documentary evidence in this regard.
This caused an uproar in the house with BJP and
Congress MLAs entering into a verbal duel.
Modhvadia further said that he had pictures of Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Ratan Tata and Radia together
before signing of the deal in 2008.
To this Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel raised
a 'point of order' and sought deletion of Modhvadia's comments
from the records of the house proceedings.
Citing assembly rules, Patel said that a member making
allegations has to provide documentary evidence in the house
substantiating his or her claims.
Speaker Ganpat Vasava, however, reserved his order on
request to expunge Modhvadia's comments from the records.
During question hour, Modhvadia had made reference to
Radia, without naming her, and said that just to oblige a lady
from Delhi the government gave away benefits worth Rs 29,000
crore to Tata.
After completion of question hour, he demanded that
there be a discussion on the deal between Tata motors and
state government in a 'zero hour', which was opposed by the
BJP.
After Patel raised the point of order, Modhvadia
thanked him as it would now allow him to put all the documents
with him on table of the house.
The Porbander MLA said he had been trying to get this
opportunity since the deal was signed, and now the government
himself had given him a chance. Modhvadia bowed thrice and
thanked his for the opportunity.
He also demanded that that a consultative committee be
formed for verifying his claims with regard to Tata, Radia and
Gujarat government on Nano deal.
Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said the
subject did not require a point of order. But minister Patel
had given a change to Congress by raising the point of order.
In a related question in the Assembly as to how many
local people were employed in the Nano unit in Sanand, Labour
and Employment Minister Vaju Vala said out of 2,539 people
employed, 1,954 were locals.
PTI
First Published: Monday, February 28, 2011, 23:53