It’s a numbers game in Gujarat assembly

Legislators in the assembly were bombarded with numbers on Thursday as two senior members, Arjun Modhwadia from Congress and state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas, gave their speeches packed with facts and figures.

In the morning session of the House, Modhwadia started his speech on the budget discussion and touched upon various issues like tender process in giving contract for premixed nutritional food.

He said, "The state government issued a tender of Rs410 crore and divided the whole state in five zones. The tender for balbhog, sukhadi, sheera, upma, was meant for distribution to lactating mothers, pregnant women and children under six years of age under the union government's scheme. But the tender was given to three companies in Rajasthan for Rs500 crore, even when a company in Gujarat had submitted the tender for only Rs408 crores."

He also gave a comparative status of Gujarat with other states in the country on issues like per capita medical expense, number of beds in government hospitals per a population of one lakh, maternal and infant mortality rates, and so on. Finally, he also gave the district wise numbers of farmers' pending applications for electricity connections in the state.

Vyas didn't reply any of the issues, stating that he had stood only up to speak on budget. Vyas also presented calculations and said that receiving the grants and funding from the Centre was Gujarat's right, and not the union government's endowment as some people, hinting at the opposition, kept shouting. Before concluding his speech, Vyas said, "Being the state health minister, I would say in doctor's terminology that 'This is only the physician's sample'."