Rahul accuses UP govt of neglecting Bundelkhand

Rahul Gandhi today accused the Uttar Pradesh government of failure to lend support to improve situation in the Bundelkhand region, which has been battling continuous drought.
"The requirement in Bundelkhand is different and it needs to be addressed differently," he said at a 'khat sabha' here.
Rahul recalled that the Congress-led UPA government had given a special package to the area, but the SP government in Uttar Pradesh did not lend support to improve the situation in the region.
The Congress vice president was speaking in course of his 'Deoria to Dilli kisan yatra' in Bundelkhand region, which has been facing continuous drought.

Attacking the Narendra Modi-led Central government on the much-debated Land Acquisition Act, the Congress leader said the UPA government had brought the bill on land acquisition by talking to all stakeholders, which was in the interest of farmers.
"But Modi had tried to make it (the bill) ineffective to help those who are responsible for committing maximum corruption in the country," he said.

"When we were in the government, we talked about roads and education...," Rahul said, adding that though BJP and other parties raised questions on the issue of loan waiver of farmers, the UPA government went ahead in announcing Rs 60,000 crore package to provide relief to the farming community by waiving loans of small and marginal farmers.

During his visit here ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Rahul met family members of freedom fighter Vishweshwar Bajpai in Badausa and had lunch with them.
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The Congress Vice President accused the Prime Minister of ruling by creating fear in the minds of people and said he was pitting religions and castes against each other.
"There is no need to fear anything. It is a country of lions," Rahul said, adding that the Congress party's ideology is fearlessness.
He urged his party workers to take the message of fearlessness, religious amity and development to the masses in poll-bound Uttarakhand.

Claiming that the Congress stood for the national flag, Rahul said 15,000 Congress workers had laid down their lives to uphold the national flag.
He described his party as the one which has fought for the country's independence and said working for Congress meant working for the national flag.
Attacking BJP's ideological parent RSS, Rahul alleged it had not unfurled the national flag at its headquarters in Nagpur for 52 years.
RSS should be asked why it did not do so, the Congress Vice President said, adding that the saffron outfit had "no respect" for the national flag.
Asking Modi to show the same urgency in the implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) which he had displayed in imposition of demonetisation, Rahul said ex-servicemen were still protesting at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

"If demonetisation can be done in a minute, OROP too can be implemented in a minute," he said.
Rahul also demanded a green bonus for Uttarakhand in recognition of its contribution to environment conservation.