In a bid to counter constant complaints of Chief Minister Narendra Modi that the Congress-led UPA government was discriminating Gujarat when it came to central allocation, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that the central government was not discriminating any state. Addressing the media persons here, Mr Chidamabaram said ‘That is not correct. We don’t discriminate any state.’ He said that the plan outlay for Gujarat was Rs 11,000 crore in the year 2005 which has now increased to Rs 51,000 in plan outlay for 2012-13. He said that Gujarat is like any other state of the country. In its growth story, the union government too has made its contribution.
In a lighter vein, Mr Chidamabaram said that he gets to hear such things in all non-Congress states.
‘But it is a part of political dialogue and one should not take it very seriously,’ he added. The Group of Ministers on Media including Union Ministers Ambika Soni and Salman Khurshid, besides Mr Chidambaram, were in the city to interact with the media this afternoon. UNI