Railway Minister Lalu Prasad called the UP CM petty for refusing land for a rail factory that will generate employment for nearly 15,000 people.
LUCKNOW: Congress president Sonia Gandhi arrived in Rae Bareli on Tuesday with a gift hamper worth over Rs 2,000 crore for her constituency. Accompanied by son and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and a clutch of central ministers, she laid the foundation stone of a rail coach factory, a unit of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and a Footwear Design and Development Institute. She also flagged off a train which would connect Rae Bareli to Mumbai.
While Sonia mainly addressed development-related issues, Lalu was in complete election mode as he used the opportunity to flay the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime. He criticised the state government for its alleged failure on the law and order front, and called upon the people to overthrow the Mulayam government. Lalu even asked the people to raise their hands to indicate their promise to support the Congress in the upcoming UP assembly polls.
For her part, Sonia was all praise for Lalu, too. “Lalu Prasad is a man who always does what he says… he has worked wonders with Indian Railways… even students of Harvard University have come to learn the basics of management from him,” she said at the foundation-laying ceremony of the rail coach factory in Lalganj.
She said schemes like the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna, Indira Awas Yojna, and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, being run by the UPA-led Central government were bringing prosperity to the rural poor.
Rahul Gandhi took swipes at the state, saying: “There is a dearth of employment opportunities for the youth in UP… they are being forced to migrate to other states… but we will bring jobs for them.” He said UP needed to develop roads, power and communication for progress, and the UPA government was committed to the goal.
But at the end of the day, it was Laloo Yadav who walked away with all the accolades. He announced that the four metros would be linked with a three-lane track in which there would be a dedicated track for goods trains apart from the up and down tracks. He also hinted that the cost of rail travel would not go up in the rail budget he is to present on February 26. Lalu also announced that Rae Bareli would be developed as a model railway station.
In his inimitable style, Lalu criticised his “Yadav brother” Mulayam for being so petty as to create problems in giving land for the foundation-laying ceremony. He said the new factory would provide employment to over 15,000 people.
“Development projects in UP are at a standstill… funds provided by the Centre are not being utilised… law and order is at its worst in UP… let us all promise to overthrow this (Mulayam) government,” he said.
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