Two former chief ministers flay Modi

By IANS,

Gandhinagar: Within a day of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi completing a record eight years in office, two former chief ministers of the state, Shankersinh Vaghela and Suresh Mehta, came together to take up cudgels against his government.

Addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad Thursday, the two announced the formation of a citizens front aimed at "articulating the problems of the large mass of suppressed government employees who have been rendered speechless by a repressive government".

"The Prabuddh Nagrik Shakti Manch is a non-political citizens forum which has been formed in response to an overwhelming demand for justice from sections of the government's own employees," said Mehta.

"The gross mismanagement, repressive and wasteful ways of the present establishment needs to be exposed, and following representations in this regard we have decided to take up these problems," said Congress leader and former union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela.

The two pointed out that the plight of teachers, who were the worst exploited in the present regime, would be the first issue that the manch proposed to take up.

Mehta said there were major disparities in the salaries and facilities given to a large mass of teachers who had been recruited as 'vidya sahayaks' and were being paid a mere Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,500 per month as against the Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 wages of regular teachers.

"The ad hoc teachers were additionally being utilized to perform 14 other administrative tasks by the manpower-short local administration leaving them little time to devote to their primary work of teaching children. This grave administrative anomaly bordering on exploitation, which was causing social tension besides unrest in the ranks of the employees, would be the first issue that we propose to take up," said Mehta.

There is considerable discontent prevailing among the adhoc employees who have been recruited on a large scale during Modi's rule.

Elections to the key municipal corporations of Gujarat-Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar are slated to be held next year, followed by those to other local self government bodies.

The Manch, according to political analysts, is intended to dent the urban vote bank of Modi in a bid to set the tone for elections to other local self government bodies to follow.

While Shankersinh Vaghela suffered a setback after he was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he had contested from Godhra, Mehta quit the BJP in the run up to the last Vidhan Sabha elections in the state.