Congress slams govt for wasting money on anti-Centre ads

Gujarat Congress on Thursday attacked the state government over its advertisements criticising the Centre’s cotton policy. It also accused the government of trying to mislead people with false information.

“The Narendra Modi government has been wasting crores of rupees of public money to spread gross lies. It should stop doing so and start telling the truth that it has not spent a single rupee for the benefit of state’s cotton farmers,” senior Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela said, addressing media-persons.

Advertisements issued by state government criticise the Centre for banning cotton exports when the supply was higher than domestic demand. The former textiles minister countered the charge saying if cotton farmers were badly hurt by the ban, why farmers from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and other cotton growing states had not raised the issue. The chairman of Congress’ campaign committee also said that Centre has been extending a lot of financial support to cotton farmers and textile industry.

Former Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel said that Maharashtra government has given package of Rs2,000 crore to its farmers, but Gujarat has not come out with any such policy in past 12 years.