Congress stages walkout on Gujarat power data discrepancies

Gandhinagar, March 15 The opposition Congress on Tuesday staged a walkout from the House proceedings in the Gujarat assembly over the issue of discrepancies in the information on power provided by the state government.

While answering a question raised by Congress MLA Niranjan Patel, Energy Minister Kanu Desai told the House that the state has surplus power. Shailesh Parmar, deputy Leader of Opposition, raised a sub-question and pointed out that there is difference in the information provided by the Minister and the information available in the socio-economic survey 2020-21.

"So what is the truth? There are data discrepancies in the government's own records," Parmar raised a question. He said the increase shown in power production by the Minister did not match with the data provided in the latest Socio Economic Survey report.

The Congress members started shouting slogans and asked when the state has surplus power, why farmers are being denied eight hours of electricity supply.

Thereafter Imran Khedawala and a few other MLAs came into the well of the House and continued sloganeering. Speaker Nimaben Acharya thereafter ordered the sergeants to forcefully remove opposition MLAs, which they did. The Congress then staged a walkout.

"There is a difference in the information provided by the government officials and Gujarat BJP leaders. Why is it so? Why is only four hours of power provided to the farmers, that too during the night, if Gujarat is a power surplus state? The government claims to provide eight hours of electricity. Why are the discrepancies? The government is misleading the House. It is the duty of the opposition to bring this to notice, farmers are not getting more than four hours of power," said Vikram Madam, MLA from Jamkhambhalia.

The party leaders said that they will launch an agitation if the farmers won't get sufficient electricity.