A war of letters has ensued between the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat Government and Centre with the two attacking each other over the issue of spending of Central funds for water conservation programme in drought-hit areas of the State.
A day after the Modi Government dismissed as “factually incorrect” the claims made by Union Rural Development Minister that Gujarat had failed to spend a chunk of the central funds meant for the programme, Jairam Ramesh on Thursday wrote a fresh letter saying the Gujarat CM had been “badly misinformed” about his Government’s spending of central funds meant for Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) in the State.
Ramesh rejected the counter charges made by the Gujarat Government, saying that all the figures that he had mentioned in his letter to Modi on the issue of utilisation of central fund for IWMP in the state was not “manufactured” by the Rural Development Ministry.
In his fresh letter to Modi, Ramesh also said that the figures given by him in his earlier letter were based on utilisation certificates submitted by the State Government.
“I am sorry that you have been badly misinformed. All the figures that I have quoted in my letter are in the public domain and are available on our website. We have not manufactured them. They are there for anybody to see,” Ramesh said.
Dismissing the allegation, State Government spokesperson Nitin Patel had said on Wednesday that Ramesh’s claims are factually incorrect and misleading as his data reflects expenditure up to June 30, 2013 only.