Praful Patel promises more international flights from state

He said this after VGS president Krishnakant Vakaria requested the minister to look into the issues of the Gujarati community living in foreign countries. The major demands put forward by Vakaria were to develop Bhuj,Rajkot and Surat as international airports besides having more direct flights from Ahmedabad to London,Sydney and Oman.

The conference is being organised here as part of the of Swarnim Gujarat festivities (Golden Jubilee celebrations of statehood). The three-day conference began on Friday with an inaugural function followed by a cultural programme.

Gujaratis from 20 countries have come for the conference where discussions will focus on the issues of the community living in other countries as well as the impact of the new laws being framed in foreign countries.

Sam Pitroda,the advisor to the Prime Minister on technology,was also present at the occasion.

Vakaria said: “The conference is a unique platform for interaction of Gujaratis from across the world. The conference will have sessions on various issues concerning Gujaratis,social cultural heritage,traditions and language.”

The conference is also expected to give boost to various development activities in education,healthcare,sanitation,tourism and social awareness.

About 1,000 delegates from across India and abroad are participating in the conference. Some of the prominent people attending the conference include Hemraj Shah from Mumbai,C B Patel from London,Narendra Patel from Chicago,Chandrakant Choithani,from Oman,Mohanbhai Shah from Kutch and and Harshad Desai from Sydney.

Modi gives the event a miss

The fourth Vishwa Gujarati Samaj conference,which began on Friday,surprisingly did not have Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the chief guest. Incidentally,Modi has recently attended several trade exhibitions and conferences in the state.

When asked about Modi’s absence,VGS president Krishnakant Vakaria said,“We had invited the Chief Minister for the function. We had also approached him in November -December last year regarding this. However,the CMO officials had told us that he was pre-occupied with other functions and that he would not be able to make it.”

Vakaria said,“We had invited Assembly Speaker Ashok Bhatt for the function.”