RAIPUR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh, said the saffron party encourages a few industrialists but ignores the concerns of the poor, the farmers, the labourers and the youngsters.
Rahul, who addressed two rallies in Chhattisgarh on Saturday said, “We don’t want two Chhattisgarhs, one rich and one poor. We want one state where there is justice and fair play for all. The tribals and farmers get their due share and benefit from the ‘jal, jungle, zameen (water, jungles and land)’ in the resource rich state. Once the Congress government is formed, we will ensure that,” he said.
At Koriya district, he accused the Modi government of writing off the loans of 15-20 top industrialists to the tune of `3.5 lakh crore and disregarding the plight of crores of farmers.
“Tell me what is the fault of farmers or tribals. I met PM Modi appealing him to waive-off loan amount of `1 lakh crore of the farmers but he didn’t react. We did it for the farmers in Punjab and Karnataka and we will do the same in Chhattisgarh,” assured the Congress chief.
“If voted to power, the Congress will not just write off the farmers’ debt in ten days, the remaining two years bonus that the Raman Singh government refused to pay will also be given by us in Chhattisgarh,” he said.
Later at Jashpur, Rahul pledged to the farmers and tribals that no land will taken from them without their consent. “We brought PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Aarea) Act, the Tribal bill and the Land acquisition Act to safeguard the rights of farmers and tribals but these laws are not being followed in the right spirit,” Rahul said.
He also targeted the Raman Singh government over the alleged `36,000 crore PDS scam.
Citing the Panama Papers leak, he said in Chhattisgarh, not even an inquiry had been initiated against the son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Abhishek Singh, whose name had also cropped up in the list of Indians in the papers.