Rahul Gandhi will do a day long 'padyatra' to highlight farmers' crisis in Maharashtra
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi arrived in Nagpur for a day-long 'padyatra' to highlight the agrarian crisis in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, where several farmers have committed suicide. Rahul was accorded a grand welcome by party activists, including women, who shouted slogans hailing him.
The Congress leader landed at the Nagpur Airport around 10 pm, about 40 minutes behind schedule, even as a stampede-like situation prevailed outside the airport with party workers jostling each other to greet him. Police had a tough time controlling the enthusiastic workers and a few barricades erected were broken in the melee. The 44-year-old Amethi MP accepted garlands and bouquets from Congress leaders and activists before getting into a car.
Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan, former MP Vilas Muttemwar, ex-Minister Anees Ahmed and Nagpur city Congress chief Vikas Thakre, among others, received Rahul at the airport. The Congress leader later left for Ravi Bhavan, a state government guest house, where he will be spending the night. He will leave for Amravati, about 160km from here, tomorrow.
Rahul will start his 15km 'padyatra' (foot march) on Thursday morning from Gunji village in Amravati district. He will also visit Rajana and Tonglabad villages in the district. He will discuss with farmers and families of those who committed suicide about the agrarian crisis and also ways to help them tide over the problem.
The 'padyatra' is part of Rahul's programme to reach out to the farmers in distress in various states. Maharashtra is one of the states that has experienced severe agrarian crisis, and Amravati division in Vidarbha has witnessed many farmer suicides this year.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa hit out at Harsimrat for allegedly not taking any interest in the misery of the beleaguered farmers and on the contrary trying to counter the pro-farmer voice being raised by Rahul Gandhi.
He said "when farmers were suffering from hailstorms and rains, Modi was conveniently taking foreign jaunts..." . Harsimrat had made a mockery of the misery of the farmers of Punjab by taking an imprudent stand in Parliament, he said in a statement here. "Instead of waking up the Modi and Badal governments from the deep slumber, she was trying to gain political brownie points. Being food processing minister, what had she done for Punjab’s agri sector so far," he asked.
Further criticising the Union minister, he said wheat, potato, sugarcane, milk and agro forestry are in a mess and she is taking a pathetic and shameful stand in Parliament and giving wrong data on wheat procurement on the floor of the House. He asserted that Rahul Gandhi's visit to the mandis in Punjab had shaken the governments at the Centre and in Punjab.
However, the Punjab government was still to wake up from the deep slumber despite having received such a jolt, he said.
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