CM keeps his guns trained on PM

Fresh salvo: 2G and coal blocks money trees for Cong

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remark that "money does not grow on trees," Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the PM might not know but Congress knew there were trees named "2G spectrum" and "coal blocks" that have yielded crores of rupees to the party.

"Yesterday, Manmohan Singh said money doesn't grow on trees. Everybody knows there are no trees that bear money. But he might not be knowing that Congress has the knowledge of such trees," Modi said.

"They have reaped Rs 1.76 lakh crore from the tree named 2G spectrum and Rs 1.86 lakh crore from the tree named coal blocks," he said.

He was addressing a public rally here as part of his ongoing Swami Vivekananad Yuva Vikas Yatra.

In his televised address to the nation Friday, the Prime Minister had said hard decisions were need of the hour since "money does not grow on trees".

Modi claimed that while the Central government had reduced the number of subsidised LPG cylinders to households to six a year, his government was saving the Centre Rs 600 crore annually in subsidy by supplying cooking gas to seven lakh families in the state through pipelines.

"We have 2,200-km-long network of pipelines to supply gas to seven lakh families. Thus we are saving Rs 600 crore for the Centre as it does not have to give subsidy on 5 crore cylinders every year. We want to expand the distribution network but the Centre is not allowing us to do this saying it is their prerogative," Modi said.

Addressing another rally in Dabhoi, the constituency of former GPCC president Siddharth Patel, the CM announced to build a memorial of medieval-era Gujarati poet Dayaram.

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