REPORT

Centre Has Failed to Tackle Drought : Sonia Gandhi
Suggests ‘Food For Work’ Scheme

MUNSHI GANJ (Amethi) : The Congress President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, proposed a ‘food-for-work’ programme for the people of drought-affected states.

She said the Centre had 65 million tonnes of foodgrains which should be given to drought-affected states for use in food-for-work scheme. "This would help ease the situation to a great extent," she told reporters here on 4 August.

Mrs. Gandhi was in Amethi, also her Parliamentary constituency, on a two-day whirlwind tour to assess the drought situation. She felt that the situation in Amethi and surrounding areas was bad.

"People have complained that the State Government has so far not provided relief to the people," she said adding that with latest technology at disposal, the Central Government should have prepared for such calamities well in advance.

While demanding a visit by a Central Committee to assess the drought situation in the State, Mrs. Gandhi felt the need for better management of relief programmes run by the Government.

"On one hand, the crops are drying up due to lack of rains and on the other, inadequate power supply has marred the irrigational facilities," she said.

"Whenever I went, people were demanding tubewells and even urging me to talk to the State Government about their problems," the AICC president added. She felt that as the State Government alone was not capable of dealing with the drought, the Centre should step in soon to do the needful.

The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the Centre had failed to tackle the drought situation properly. The Centre has to play a pro-active role in tackling this calamity as the states alone cannot handle everything on their own. "When Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, the country faced a similar situation during 1986-88 and he tackled it as a mission, holding daily briefings and touring the affected areas to get the right perspective," Smt. Gandhi claimed.

She said the Congress will put pressure on the ruling party in Parliament to take steps in this regard.

The Congress President said Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh failed to take steps on time to face the current situation. "The Union Minister called a meeting of State Agriculture Ministers too late and that was able to do very little," she said.

While on 4 August she held 24 public interaction meetings in various areas of Sultanpur and Barabanki districts, on 5 August the Congress President held 17 such meets before winding up her programme.

She interacted mostly with women working in fields and listened to their problems. She entered the fields and interacted with farmers, giving a tough time to her SPG bodyguards.

Capt. Amrinder Singh Assures Relief Package to Drought Hit Farmers

Jalandhar : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh visited Jalandhar after the general elections in Punjab on 19 July. This was his first visit and was warmly welcomed by the people of the ‘city beautiful’. Congress Party’s newly-elected Mayor Shri Surinder Mahe with DCC president Sr. Tejinder Singh Bittu his councillors organised the "Nagrik Abhinandan Samaroh" in which all the councillors of Jalandhar, minister of Local Bodies Punjab, Ch. Jagjit Singh, Ch. Santokh Singh, Sh. Avtar Henry, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Gurwinder Singh Atwal, Amarjeet Singh Samra and MLA’s Mrs. Gurkanwal Kaur, Raj Kumar Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh Lally and Member of Parliament from Jalandhar, Sr. Balbir Singh were present on the occasion.

Addressing the people of Jalandhar Captain Amrinder Singh said the Govt. of Punjab is planning to give more rights to the Panchayats to fullfil the dreams of late Prime Minister Sh. Rajiv Gandhi. While inaugurating the NRI Bhawan, Captain Amrinder Singh said problems of NRI’s will be solved at "first come first serve" basis. Chief Minister Amrinder Singh also inaugurated the computerisation of land-record in district administrative office and announced that shortly Punjab will be more advanced state in Information Technology, more than Andhra Pradesh. He also assured that draught-hit areas of Punjab will be given special relief-package, announced by the Central Government. For the development in the state he said he will be going to America and Canada to talk to officials of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank grants.

Meanwhile, the Jalandhar District Congress (Urban) office has been connected with Internet. The District Congress chief Sr. Tejinder Singh Bittu, renovated the District Congress Committee office and set up a PBX and computer in the office. The office has also been linked with Internet and e-mail address - dccu@comeconnect.com and also prepare a website of district Congress (Urban) with the history of Jalandhar city, its presidents since 1968, MLAs, MPs, office-bearers, councillors and working of the workers indicated in it. In the software programming, District vice-president Sh. Anil Vashisht and Sanjay Sehgal made vital contribution.

Chief Minister specially visited DCC office and signed the visitors’ book and appreciated Sr. Tejinder Singh ‘Bittu’s’ dedicated work as a district Congress chief and also inaugurated the website www.ddd.jalandharcity.com.

Among those presents were Sr. Balbir Singh (MP), Mayor Surinder Mahe, minister Punjab Govt., Ch. Jagjit Singh, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, Rachpal Singh Pal, former acting president DCC (Urban) youth leader Manjinder Singh Johal, general secretary DCC Naresh Gupta, Ravinder Mittal, Lekh Raj Sharma, Sh. Kailash Khanna, vice-president Sh. Anil Vashisht, Sanjay Sehgal vice-president-cum-Incharge Press, Publicity and Coordination.

- Naresh Gupta,
General Secretary, DCC(U), Jalandhar