Rahul Gandhi’s 3rd question for Modi: Why use public money to buy power from 4 private companies?

December 1, 2017, 10:01 IST

In the run-up to the crucial Gujarat election, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today posted his third question for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter, asking why the state government that Modi led until 2014 bought power from four private companies at a highly-inflated price.

Rahul’s third question in his ongoing series of posers for the PM – “22 saalon ka hisaab, Gujarat maange jawaab” (Gujarat demands answers for 22 years of rule) – said: “Why fill the pockets of four private companies between 2002-2016 by buying electricity worth Rs 62,549 crore from them? Why was electricity worth Rs 3 a unit bought at Rs 24 by reducing the capacity of state-owned power plants by 62 per cent?”

He did not name the four companies. “Why was public money splurged like this?” asked the 47-year-old leader, whose party is hoping to halt the 22-year run of the BJP in Gujarat, which is also Modi’s home state.

Leading his party’s campaign from the front, Rahul, in his speeches, has stayed away from emotive issues and has largely focused on questions of economy and livelihood to take on the ruling BJP. His first two questions were about housing and alleged financial mismanagement of the Gujarat government.

On Thursday in his election rallies at Lathi and Bhavnagar, Rahul also promised to waive the loans of farmers and provide free education in government-aided colleges if the Congress comes to power in the state.
Attacking Modi, he said, “Modiji waived loans worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore of his five-ten industrialists friends, but Modiji and (Finance Minister Arun) Jaitleyji say that it is not their policy to waive loans of farmers when they ask for it.”

Gujarat votes in two phases on December 9 and 14 for its 182-member state Assembly. The votes cast in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections will be counted on December 18.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rahul-gandhi-narendra-modi-gujarat-election-22-year-run-bjp-congress/1/1100938.html