Guj govt ignoring children of displaced slum-dwellers: Cong

Taking a dig over the visit of Pakistani delegation to Sabarmati riverfront project in Ahmedabad earlier in the day, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil today said in the Assembly that government was ignoring the problems of children displaced due to the project.
"When Pakistan is constantly firing on Indian territory across the border, the state government invited delegates from the country to see the riverfront. But the government doesn't have time to see whether education is available to children of slum-dwellers who were displaced from the riverfront (during its development)," Gohil said, speaking during the discussion on budgetary allocations of education department.

Gohil also claimed that government was doing injustice to teachers by not paying them enough salary.
"Teachers are paid a fixed salary of just Rs 5,300. Even the High Court slammed the government by terming it as exploitation. Instead of increasing the salary, government dragged the matter up to Supreme Court. Such policies are affecting the education sector very badly," he said.
The Congress MLA also said that government should stop wasting the money on school enrollment program 'Praveshotsam', and focus on recruiting teachers and professors.
"In Gujarat, 75 per cent posts of principals of engineering and poly-technic colleges are still vacant. Ninety per cent posts of professors, 71 per cent posts of assistant professors and 74 per cent posts of lecturers are lying vacant. As there is no one to teach engineering students, they eventually fail to secure jobs," Gohil said, claiming that 11,305 qualified engineers in the state were jobless.

Talking about allocations of ports department, he claimed that state government was doing injustice to the Alang ship-breaking yard.
"Government earns a huge revenue from Alang yard, but due to corruption no concrete policy has been framed yet for ship-breakers. A proposal to build a jetty is pending for long. High Court had ordered that a particular amount should be spent for the welfare of labourers at Alang but government hasn't done anything yet," he said.