The youth of UP should stand up and question the government

"It is an open fact that there have been irregularities.


If such a thing would have happened in Maharashtra or Delhi or Haryana or Punjab, the government there would have resigned the same day," he said.

"The Centre provides funds worth thousands of crores of rupees for medical facilities to the rural poor under NRHM but the money has been misused by the state government," he alleged, accusing the BSP government of overlooking the rights of farmers and rural people.

 
Gandhi also lashed out at the UP government for carrying out forced land acquisition. "There have been financial irregularities in Noida where land of the poor has been acquired and given to builders for the Yamuna Expressway. Why is this happening?" he posed.

 He said this was because the youth of the state were not standing up and questioning the government."It is the youth's responsibility," Gandhi pointed out, asking young Congress workers to revive the party and in the process rid the state of Mayawati's "misrule".

With Congress trying to regain its lost moorings in the state, he said the youth leaders must expose the "anti-people and anti-farmer policies" of the BSP government and fan out among the masses to propagate the Centre's people-oriented policies and programmes.

He was addressing the party's youth brigade at Syed Modi stadium here. "Work at grass root level and be sensitive towards the problems of common man," was Gandhi's refrain during his interaction with the Youth Congress workers here and later in Mau district.

After his Kisan Sandesh Yatra in western UP earlier this month where he undertook foot march from villages in Gautam Buddha Nagar to Aligarh, this is his second mass contact programme in the state.

Corrupt Mayavati is misutilising central fund

"For the youth today, as I hear often, Ayodhya and such issues are not important but for them education and jobs are more relevant. If we do not transform our educational system then we will have to struggle in future," warned Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.

To a query on packages from the Centre for backward regions, he said, "I had visited Bundelkhand in the region some years ago and found many serious problems facing the region on its way to development. There is a central problem that packages by the Centre for development of backward regions, are not being utilized properly and the need is to improve the situation."

Land acquisition amendment bill in next Parliament session, assures PM

Singh said that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati's government in Uttar Pradesh was misusing the emergency provisions of the land acquisition act.

He said the delegation also demanded that Haryana government's rehabilitation policy, which has provisions for acquisition of land at market rates and an annuity for 33 years, should be sent to all states as a model legislation.

Earlier, interacting with reporters before the meeting with Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi said land acquisition was "a big and important issue".

"What happened in Aligarh is very unfair," Gandhi said.

The sooner Mayawati goes from power the better it is for Uttar Pradesh people

“The BSP government was turning its back on pro-poor schemes and still claims to be a pro-poor government. How can this be possible?” Mr. Gandhi, who was allegedly denied permission to garland Ambedkar’s statue here, asked.

“Money for development projects reaches Lucknow but Ambedkar Nagar and other districts of the state (are not developed)... Money has been given to the UP government for schemes like MGNREGA, RTE and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, but no one knows what happens to this money,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi alleged that he had got a Central package worth crores of rupees for Bundelkhand but nobody in the region has seen its benefits.

Mr. Gandhi also attacked Ms. Mayawati for criticising his visits to Dalit homes, saying it does not go down well with her as she feels threatened by it.

The Congress General Secretary said that the politics of religion and caste have failed in UP and there was a need to usher in a new way of politics targeted at the youth.

“In the times to come, UP has to answer how to tackle unemployment and poverty in the state. Politics in the state will now revolve around this question,” he said.

Congress will change the destiny of Uttar Pradesh_____Rahul

This glorious state has suffered over the past two decades essentially on account of the politics of caste and religion.

I am here to change that politics. What Uttar Pradesh needs is the politics of youth, the politics of development and employment.

"I am here to raise the key issues that affect the masses who remain deprived and downtrodden, simply because their uplift does not figure in the list of priorities of those who are in power here," he added.

He described NREGS "as the only programme in India to provide assured employment for 100 days in a year to the economically weak". 

"Special funds released for the development of the highly backward Bundelkhand region were not put to proper use. When it came to the Right to Education, the BSP government has come up with all kinds o5f excuses for not implementing it," he said.

"I wonder how the chief minister continued to proclaim herself as the messiah of the poor and downtrodden when she seems least interested in schemes and programmes aimed at their well being?"

I am committed to the cause of the poor and the needy who reside in villages because I feel that the true strength of India lies there.

‘Daulat ki beti’ Mayawati extorting money: Congress

Attacking Mayawati, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that she is no more a “Dalit ki beti but is daulat ki beti” and alleged that BSP is extracting money through illegal means in the name of party fund. 

Digvijay said, “It is brazen show of wealth, a brazen show of corruption. A brazen show of how money is being collected through an organized network of criminals centralized at the Chief Minister’s residence.”

“BSP is extracting money from miners, public works department (PWD), Noida and the public distribution system (PDS) in the name of party fund,” he added.

Questioning the source of such huge sums of money, Singh said that a thorough probe is required into all the aspect of the matter.

He also suggested that initial investigation into the matter suggest the first garland used for felicitating Mayawati was worth Rs 22.50 crores.”

Reacting to the latest garland controversy, Congress party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said, “Repeated felicitation of Mayawati with currency notes is an unrepentant act and can not be justified. The entire show ‘violates the basic tenants of democracy’.

When Bareilly is burning, the Nero of UP is playing the piano

The Congress also slammed Mayawati for her alleged spending of crores of rupees to organise the rally and her administration's failure in containing the communal violence in Bareilly. 

'When Bareilly is burning, the Nero of UP is playing the piano,' Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said.

On the expenses for the BSP rally, Tewari noted there was no money for farmers hit by drought and the victims of Ashram stampede in Pratapgarh. 'What is happening in UP?' he asked.