Promising to carry on politics of “Umeed” (hope), BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Tuesday delivered 28 houses funded by him to ‘the poorest of the poor in his constituency.
This was the first step of his “futuristic plan” to build 100 such houses in his parliamentary seat and a total of 5000 one-room houses across Uttar Pradesh in two to three years with financial contribution from people across the country and internationally.
Striking a chord with those who were presented one-room ‘Pucca’ yellow painted houses (politically neutral colour), the Gandhi scion said “politics should not be limited to change of governments, winning or losing elections but it be used for larger and permanent public benefits”. “The best legacy that I would leave behind me is good will and blessings of people, particularly poor”, he said while unveiling the first house owned by a family of minority community.
He said the idea was to create “first generation home owners” whose generations never lived in ‘pucca houses’. To ensure that houses first reach to the most needy, survey was done with the help of local administration to identify ‘the man on the last ladder’ in the constituency.
Hinting that he was for “an alternative way of doing politics”, Varun said in last three years 3,662 farmers, identified by his team as potential cases for suicide on account of their debt history, were made “debt free” in UP . A payment of Rs 18 crore was paid to farmers through cheques . A systematic case study of poorest famers in Sultanpur and 21 other districts of the state was done by the research volunteers before zeroing on the beneficiaries.
The criteria for selecting farmers for assistance included whether he had “defaulted on loan four times, has no fixed assets and experienced misfortune of three harvest loss.” The banks were talked to , bank accounts of farmers checked and sought assistance of local administration to authenticate “genuine defaulters”. “Thereafter we went to the rich people who presented cheques to them”, he said.
The districts covered included Agra, muzzafarnagar, Bijnore, lakhimpur khiri, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Mooradabad, sitapur and Bahraich.
“Next year we have bigger plan and I want to link world’s richest with poorest in UP by way of internet”, Said the BJP MP adding he intends to “ramp up the plan” and “institutionalise” ready assistance to the poor farmers which would include providing farming and other inputs to them so that they could establish themselves financially on a permanent basis.
Interacting with villagers in the public meetings, he said the effort is to galavnise people’s energy and bring about ‘Nagrik Kranti’ where people reach out to each other and come together to usher “major genuine changes” in the society. “Young people now do not want mere talk or promises but concrete deliveries”, the MP said in the poll-bound State where various political parties have increased the pitch of their poll campaign.