JD-U lauds CAG's effort to expose 'unreal' claims of Modi's Gujarat

The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Saturday praised the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for exposing the unreal claims of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and added that the latter's so-called development model only caters to corporate houses in the state.

"The CAG report on Gujarat has exposed the long and unreal claims of Narendra Modi, and the exclusive growth of Gujarat. This shows the hypocrisy of his claim of exclusive and inclusive growth," JD-U leader K C Tyagi said.

"This is the difference between the Bihar model and the Gujarat model. Nitish Kumar's model of development is inclusive, and it is for all sections of the society, while Narendra Modi's exclusive development is for the corporate houses," he added.

Another JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari also rubbished Modi's Gujarat model, and emphasized that most malnourished children were reported to be in the commercial city of Ahmedabad.

"BJP calls Gujarat a development model and Narendra Modi, the god of development.

CAG has brought the truth of the government's hidden facts. What is more surprising is that most malnourished children in Gujarat are in commercial city of Ahmedabad. Many people who are assuming Narendra Modi to be their future hope, should look at these facts," he said in here in Patna.

The CAG on Friday released its report of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Gujarat, which is aimed at fighting malnutrition among children, and concluded that every third child in the state is underweight.

"Though there were 223.16 lakh eligible beneficiaries under Supplementary Nutrition (SN) programme under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), 63.37 lakh beneficiaries were left out," the CAG said in its report, which was tabled in the state Assembly on October 4.

"As against the target of 300 nutrition days annually, shortfall in providing SN was up to 96 days. Every third child in the state was reported as underweight. Shortfall of 27 per cent to 48 per cent was noticed in the implementation of nutrition programme for adolescent girls," the report added.

The CAG report also concluded that the Gujarat population of 1.87 crore was deprived of the benefits of ICDS.

In November 2008, the Centre had directed the Gujarat government to submit a proposal for additional projects based on the revised population criteria, however, the state failed to do so.

ICDS was launched in 1975 by the Central Government to endorse the all-round development of children, -upto the age of six-expectant and lactating mothers and adolescent girls through package services comprising of nutrition, immunisation, health check-ups, health education and informal education of young children.

ICDS, which was funded entirely by the Centre till 2009, is now sponsored 10 percent by the state and 90 percent by the Centre.