The Maha Gujarat Janata Party (MGJP) has demanded that the Modi government work out a Nano car project type incentive package to pull the diamond industry out of the prevailing economic mess. The MGJP raised this demand in a memorandum its leaders submitted to state Chief Secretary D Rajagopalan here on Friday.

The MGJP delegation led by president Gordhan Zadafia met the Chief Secretary and demanded that the government provide educational fees to children of jobless diamond workers, who have started leaving schools in Surat and elsewhere in the state.

Later, Zadafia told Newsline that if the government could provide 330 per cent loan to Tata Motors at a meagre 0.1 per cent interest for setting up a Nano car project at Sanand, a similar sop should be doled out to the diamond cutting and polishing units against the total investment made in these.

The MGJP said the government had announced in the Nano package that Tata Motors would be supplied power at

Rs three per unit for the project. The diamond units that are being charged Rs 5.85 per unit for power should be given at least 50 per cent subsidy in electricity.

Expressing concern over the rise in suicides by jobless diamond workers across the state, Zadafia, a former BJP Minister of State for Home, demanded that the government provide an assistance of Rs 1 lakh to the families of each of the jobless diamond workers who have committed suicide since Diwali. Not less than 100 diamond workers have committed suicide in the state in the last three months. He also demanded that the government provide an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month to each of the families of diamond polishers till they get employment in the diamond industry. Zadafia said the diamond industry in Gujarat is facing the worst-ever crisis, and if the government fails to take remedial measures on a war-footing to restore the situation, “the state may witness a civil war-like situation in the days to come.”