Making a pitch for the development of backward area of Budelkhand and Eastern UP, the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi slammed the state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for ignoring the development of the area besides he also took on Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) accusing them for fueling communal hatred to polarise vote bank.
Accusing BJP of trying to polarise voters, Rahul Gandhi said communal riots like Muzaffarnagar are engineered by some politicians in the run up to polls for electoral gains. He said people are intelligent enough to see through these designs and would vote for his party like they did in 2009 and 2004 elections. “Congress wants people of all religions and castes to come together to build this country... Riots are engineered by some politicians. People understand this and those looking for development and job will vote for us,” he said at a public rally addressed first in Rath (hamirpur) and later in Salempur (Deoria) on Wednesday.
Congress vice-president flayed non-development policy of Akhilesh Yadva.”It is ironical that UP government is headed by a young chief minister but he has done nothing to rid people of the Bundelkhand of abject poverty, “ he said while addressing ‘dhanyavad rally(thanksgiving rally) in Rath. He claimed that the Samajwadi Party which was voted to power in 2012 had made toll promises to the people for the development and creating new avenues of employment but it badly failed to deliver. “You need to create infrastructure like roads, railway lines and other development works for creating jobs,” he pointed out alleging the SP government in the state had disappointed its lot.
Making a passionate appeal to the people of the state, the senior Congress leader said the benefits of the development schemes will not each you until you install Congress government in the state as well as the Centre. Criticising the UP government for its failure to implement the special development package for the Bundelkhand sanctioned by the Centre, Rahul Gandhi said “until and unless the UP government picks up the gauntlet and makes a firm resolve for the development of Bundelkhand, the region can never develop.” He told the gathering that the Centre provided sufficient funds to the state government for the development of Bundelkhand area but the benefits never reached here. “The state governments which came to power in last over two decades had failed in ensuring that the benefit of the development schemes and the funds sent by Center reached to the common people,” he added.
Describing Bundelkhand as a water deficient region, he said in many places wells were dug but left incomplete causing huge losses to the farmers. “The Central government in Delhi can hear and feel the suffering of the people of Bundelkhand and it sanctioned a special development package for the region but your voice is not reaching lucknow, the seat of the state government,” alleged Rahul Gandhi. His question to the local people whether they got the benefit of the package was met with a loud NO.
Outlining the benefits of the Food security act, Rahul Gandhi said “ UP is the biggest beneficiary of the food security act yet the UP government is reluctant to implement the food security law before the 2014 parliament elections for political reason. Can the hunger wait till the next elections, it is for you to mount pressure on the state government to implement the law for the poor people at the earliest.” He appealed to the people to force the SP government to implement the scheme before the lok Sabha elections.
In Salempur, Congress leader said that UP has gone backward in the past 25 years during the non-Congress regime and now even the state government was not implementing the Central schemes for the benefit of the ‘Aam admi’. “ We send money to the state but it either disappeared or is not being utilized properly and now they are not even implementing the Central schemes,” he said in his brief just 10 minutes speech after arriving around 2 hours late. He said that the Congress working should take up the war to get the food security Act implemented at earliest. State Congress president Nirmal Khatri, who was also present there announced that on November 21 the party would gherao Chief Minister in lucknow to press for the implementation of the Act.
Recalling the promises made by the Congress during 2004 and 2009 elections, Rahul said ,’’ we have kept our promises by bringing Aam Admi schemes like MGNREGS,RTI and now Food Security Act and land Acquisition Act.’’ He appealed to the people to support the Congress like they did in the past two lok Sabha elections. ‘’ What is UP doing for the past 25 years with no development at all. While in Rajasthan, Congress government has brought waters in the desert and in Maharastra there is a series of development works, but UP was lagging in all sector,’’ he said. Rahul also expressed his concern for the backwardness of Eastern UP but also said that Congress is helpless as it is not in power in the state for the past over 2 decades. Congress vice-president alsp cornered the UP government over closed sugar mills. Rahul said,”sugar mills are shutting down here, although youths need employment. The Centre is chalking out schemes which will benefit the people.”
The meeting in Salempur was also marred by some disturbances during the speech of Rahul Gandhi when supporters of Swaraj Party raised slogans demanding AIIMS like hospital in eastern UP. The some congress acitivists thrashed the Swaraj party acitivists to end their protest. Some chaos was also created just before arrival of Rahul Gandhi when local Party leaders clashed on dais over addressing the gathering. Union Minister of State for Home, RPN Singh and ClP Pradeep Mathur were other prominent leaders who were present during the meeting.