Mayawati never visited 'barren villages' of Bundelkhand: Rahul

Blaming the Mayawati government for the backwardness and "barren villages" in Bundelkhand, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister never visited the region to see what drought and poverty is all about. "Mayawati never went to Bundelkhand to see what drought is all about there, and what poverty is," Rahul said while addressing a public meet in Tilhar area in Shahjahanpur, UP.

"I went there and saw barren villages," he said. "We sent Bundelkhand package for the development of the region but where Rs 3,000 crore went nobody knows."

Referring to the recent visit of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of Planning Commission, to review implementation of the special package in the region, Gandhi said that he went there and saw the reality of the package. Ahluwalia had expressed dissatisfaction over the use of development money.

The Congress general secretary said that Union Minister for Environment Jayaram Ramesh had recently stated that there had been massive corruption in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act in UP and the health minister had also said that almost Rs 3,000 crore have been looted.

He attacked the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party for indulging in caste politics and stressed that it was essential that the state got rid of these two parties. "You showed full confidence in the BSP and gave it 208 seats (in the last elections), but did Mayawati come to you or heard your problems," Gandhi said adding that people (earlier) believed in SP but it also gave them nothing.

On the contrary they got criminals posted in police stations and the victims did not get justice, he said adding that both the parties have cheated the people.  The Congress leader said that he wanted to tell Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati that people of the state wanted development, employment, roads, power and water. Reiterating his charges against Yadav on importance of computers and English, he said that Yadav has got his son learn both.

But for the poor he (Yadav) feels that if the poor learn English they will progress and would start questioning his casteist politics, Gandhi claimed.

Terming the BSP government as the most corrupt one, he said that its elephant (election symbol) is magical it does not eat leaves or grass but eats money.... It is your money, which is going in the pockets of BSP ministers. The Congress leader alleged that in UP those who want to benefit from the central schemes have to pay bribe, and exhorted people to vote for the Congress.