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Sonia to focus on agriculture
during Maharashtra tour

The Congress on Monday alleged that the Vajpayee government was discriminating in the distribution of foodgrains to Congress-ruled states.

Party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Bharatiya Janata Party were "playing politics''.

He accused Vajpayee of "remaining callous even as foodgrains rot in godowns of the Food Corporation of India, while poor people continue to starve in various parts of the country".

Sharma pointed out that the "failed'' agricultural policy of the government would be focussed on by party chief Sonia Gandhi, during her two-day tour of Maharashtra.

Sonia, he pointed out, would address public rallies, including a major one in Latur.

Contending that the government's agricultural policy had resulted in suicides by small and marginal farmers, he alleged that there was a virtual migration of poor people from rural areas for "sustenance".

"Our party chief will spare no efforts in her public rallies to highlight the plight of farmers and the poor, deprived and downtrodden people," Sharma later told rediff.com.

"The situation causes serious concern. The government's continuing insensitivity has made us demand immediate corrective measures," he said.

The spokesman pointed out that the poor people's migration from the rural to urban areas had been noted by the national and international media "but the government seems that it could not care less".

He underscored that "this social crisis should have alerted the government and it must come out with a credible plan of action before the problem spins out of control."

When it was pointed out that the Congress too was in power in Maharashtra (along with the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar), Shrama said, "Nevertheless the central government is discriminating in the distribution of foodgrains in five major Congress-ruled states.''

The fact that certain private parties had been allowed to export rotten foodgrains revealed "bad governance, which had given the country a bad name," he alleged.

He demanded that the government immediately form a "uniform agricultural policy" which benefits small and marginal farmers "instead of vested interests."

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