GUJARAT'S MINISTER for Education Anandiben Patel said here today post Godhra, Gujarat's image in people's minds was still one of a fast progressing State. Anandiben Patel and former Union Minister and Member of Parliament Harinbhai Pathak and MP JayantiBhai Barot addressed a press conference here this morning.
In reply to a question she said people in general had no doubt about the State's image and added “the bad image of Gujarat persists only in the minds of a few people.”
The Minister added, that the atmosphere in Gujarat could be ascertained from the increase in number of foreign tourists from 2,000 to 5,000 over the past few years. The number of domestic tourists too had risen.
She said Gujarat would like to work with Madhya Pradesh in areas of agriculture, health, education and tourism. They would have a meeting with ministers and officials here and would discuss cooperation between the two States to work jointly in the said fields.
{{/usCountry}}She said Gujarat would like to work with Madhya Pradesh in areas of agriculture, health, education and tourism. They would have a meeting with ministers and officials here and would discuss cooperation between the two States to work jointly in the said fields.
{{/usCountry}}Since the Gujarat Government had declared 2006 as Tourism Year they would have a meeting with tour operators here also. He said the delegation would also meet Gujarati people living in Madhya Pradesh and other people including industrialists to persuade them to invest in Gujarat. She said Gujarat's agriculture production had shot up from Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore.
In the last five years Rs 94,000 crores had been invested in the State and business delegations from abroad who were visiting Gujarat were impressed to see the world-class infrastructure in the State.
She said as per a Union Government report, Gujarat had given 56 per cent employment to people while other States together had given only 44 per cent employment. Gujarat was the only State where electricity was available 24 hours a day, for industries as well as the domestic sector.
Under Jyotigram Scheme 13,000 villages out of a total of 18,000 villages were getting three-phase power supply round the clock while the rest of the villages would be getting the facility by March 2006. Under the tourism year she said all 25 districts would see a host of programmes to promote Gujarat's tourism at the global level.