Deal benevolently with situation, Sonia urges PM

NEW DELHI, APRIL 25. The Congress(I) president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, today appealed to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, not to deal with the drought situation in several States with a ``cold political heart'' and charged the Centre with not providing adequate help to cyclone-hit Orissa last year as an Opposition party Government was in power there.

``I appeal to the Prime Minister not to deal with the situation (arising out of drought) with a cold political heart, but a just, benevolent one,'' Ms. Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, said in the Lok Sabha.

Participating in the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President's address, she said that during the Orissa cyclone, the people of the State failed to get adequate relief from the Centre as ``an Opposition government was in power there''.

She wanted the Government to urgently make foodgrains available to drought-hit States to enable them start ``food for work'' relief programmes. This, she said, could be done as the food stocks with the Centre at present were almost double those required for maintaining food security.

- PTI

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