Vadodara, Feb 18 (PTI) Gujarat Congress today accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of ignoring the issues concerning small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for the sake of corporate bigwigs. "Around 57,000 small and medium scale units have become defunct due to flawed policies of BJP government. Modi is not interested in addressing the issues of SMEs and is more interested in according special treatment to corporate giants," Gujarat state unit Congress president Arjun Modhwadia said. He was here to launch the party's campaign aimed at "exposing rampant corruption" in the state government. "Modi is offering MNCs and corporates like Tata Motors, Essar all incentives and even allotting them land at throwaway prices; as low as Rs 15 per square metre," Modhwadia said. Modi government had allotted land to Tata Motors in Sanand near Ahemadabad for its Nano plant after the company was forced to relocate following a land row in West Bengal, while Essar Oil has its refinery in Jamnagar. "Essar deferred Rs 9,100 crore payment of sales tax which resulted into a loss of annual interest of Rs 1,200 crore to the state treasury," he alleged. The GPCC president also said that over Rs 5,000 crore had been spent towards personal publicity of Modi during his Sadbhavna (goodwill) programmes.
