Rahul detects fake fertiliser on Bundelkhand tour

While turning his focus to Uttar Pradesh once again after a long gap, Congress general Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday detected supply of fake fertiliser in a village of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi, who arrived on a three-day tour of the poverty-ridden Bundelkhand region in southern Uttar Pradesh since Monday, was on the last leg of his mission to get a first hand account of the implementation of different centrally funded schemes as well as the fate of the special economic package doled out by the Central government towards development of this backward region.

Accompanied by UP Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Union Minister of state for Rural Development Pradeep Jain, who himself hails from Bundelkhand, Rahul was passing through Mohda block of Hamirpur district when he intercepted a tractor-trolly loaded with DAP fertiliser.

"No sooner the trio confronted the driver with certain queries, he confessed that the fertilizer was fake," UP congress spokesman Subodh Srivastava told mediapersons.

He said, "Finding himself cornered the tractor driver ran away from the scene, abandoning the vehicle with 150 bags of DAP fertiliser, that was handed over to the police.

He added, "The fake DAP bags were a testimony to our long-standing charge that the UP government was not bothered about the plight of farmers. If farmers were to use fake fertiliser for their paddy crops, it would have gotten ruined, resulting inn the farmer being compelled to fall into a debt trap."

He said, "At the end of the tour, Rahul was convinced that the special Bundelkhand package was not being implemented properly and a large chunk of the funds meant for the well being of farmers was being pilfered by the state agencies."