Congress-led UPA tried to stall Gujarat's progress: Anandiben Patel

WANAKBORI (Kheda): Ahead of the local body polls in Gujarat, chief minister Anandiben Patel on Thursday slammed the Congress for "deliberately stalling" the progress of the state by sitting on important files and withholding the crucial environmental clearances to many projects.

In her address at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of an 800MW power plant here, Patel alleged that the previous Congress-led UPA government at Centre did everything possible to put the spanner in several key projects, including Wanakbori project.

"Gujarat Government (had) requested the then UPA government to provide environmental clearance to this project in 2009. But, the Congress-led government never gave us clearance, as they did not want Gujarat to surge ahead," the CM said, adding that had the clearance been in place, this project might have become operational by now.

"We would also have saved several hundred crores on the cost of the plant. But the Congress always tried to stall Gujarat's progress," said Patel.

She also attacked Congress on the issue of the height of the Narmada dam, saying that the UPA government under it never listened to then chief minister Narendra Modi's requests to increase height of the dam and install gates.

"After 2008, when we took the height of the dam to 121.92 metres, (Narendra) Modi visited Delhi several times and met then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, requesting him to give approval to raise the height (to 138.72 meters) and install gates. But we were not given permission till 2014," said Patel.

The CM said that people of Gujarat "suffered" due to such biased approach of the Congress-led government.

"Luckily, Modiji became PM and gave us the permission. Congress deliberately sat on files which were very important for Gujarat. I assure you that we will complete installation of gates by June 2017," she said.