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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa gestures from a vehicle to her supporters after addressing an election campaign rally in Chennai yesterday.
IANS/Chennai
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa yesterday said the state's human development index was better than that of Gujarat ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Addressing an election rally here, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader said: "It is the human development index that shows whether a state has attained development and whether that has benefited the poor and the middle class."
Reeling off statistics, the chief minister said 16.6% of Gujarat's population was below the poverty line, while in Tamil Nadu it was 11.3%.
She said 38 children die in Gujarat before the age of one, whereas in Tamil Nadu the figure is only 21.
She also said 122 women die in Gujarat during child delivery, whereas in Tamil Nadu the figure is only 90.
On agriculture, Jayalalithaa said food production in Tamil Nadu during 2011-12 was 101.51 lakh tonnes whereas in Gujarat it was 88.74 lakh tonnes.
She also said the number of industries and workers in Tamil Nadu was higher than in Gujarat.
Jayalalithaa said Tamil Nadu attracted foreign direct investment of Rs15,252 crore in 2012-13 against Gujarat's Rs2,676 crore.
The chief minister also said there were 479 incidents of communal violence in Gujarat during 2005-2013 whereas in Tamil Nadu it was only 200.
Jayalalithaa also hit out at Gujarat over the public distribution scheme (PDS), saying 63% of PDS food items in Gujarat are sold in the black market, while the percentage in Tamil Nadu was only four.
Crime against women in Gujarat between 2001-2012 went up by 65%, while in Tamil Nadu it went down by 29%, she said.
Jayalalithaa said that in rural and urban Gujarat the average amount spent by a person was Rs1,430 and Rs2,472 respectively, while in Tamil Nadu the figures were Rs1,571 and Rs2,534.
The crowd cheered when she asked: "Who is the best administrator? Is it Gujarat's Modi or Tamil Nadu's Lady?"
BJP leaders here have been asking whether the factories in Tamil Nadu were functioning to their full capacity due to the severe power shortage in the state.
Modi, while campaigning in the state on April 13, charged the AIADMK and the DMK with taking people for granted.
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