Ahmedabad, Nov 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, saying thousands of crores of rupees are being spent on "vanity projects" such as the new Parliament building in Delhi and the country"s first bullet train connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai.The former Union Finance Minister advised the Congress in Gujarat to stay away from such vanity projects and focus on helping the poor and spend money on improving education and healthcare facilities if voted to power in the next month"s Assembly elections.In Gujarat to campaign for the opposition party for the December 1 and 5 Assembly polls, Chidambaram maintained the BJP-ruled state is under "high debt"."We must decide what are our priorities (when Congress comes to power in Gujarat). Is our priority to build a new Parliament building? Come and see the earlier Rajpath, now Kartavya Path (in New Delhi). What has changed? Nothing has changed. I can"t see any change," said the Congress leader during his interaction with a group of professionals at the party"s state headquarters here."You can"t spend money on vanity projects. The new Parliament is a vanity project. Instead, you must spend on sanity projects. Things which are sane. That is the advice I will give to the Congress if it comes to power," added the Rajya Sabha member.The senior Congressman slammed the BJP over the issue of building a new residence for the Vice- President."Now, you are spending thousands and thousands of crores. I am told they are building a Vice-President"s house for Rs 265 crore. I had earlier said M Venkaiah Naidu (the then-VP) must reject this proposal. Why do you need a Vice-President"s house for Rs 265 crore? Are you building Buckingham Palace here?" he said. Chidambaram said it"s fair to spend Rs 5 crore or Rs15 crore for a house, but not Rs 265 crore.He criticised the under-construction Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train corridor."I think the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train is a vanity project. The flight will take you an hour (to travel between the two cities). And I am told the bullet train ticket will be more or less what an airline ticket costs. Speed up your existing trains. If they are running at 60 kmph then take it to 80 kmph. So vanity projects must be avoided," said the former Union minister.He said though Gujarat is reeling under "high debt", it is still borrowing every year.The former Finance Minister asked the Congress leadership to cut down on borrowings and decide priorities if the party forms the next government in Gujarat, where the BJP is in power for the last 27 years."So the first thing is to put the finances of Gujarat in order and make them sustainable. Which means borrowing and interest payments must be cut down. Please remember that 20 per cent of Indians are extremely poor. In Gujarat, government data shows nearly 15 per cent people are poor, that means one crore out of nearly 6 crore are poor," he said. PTI PJT PD RSY RSY