Sonia visits rain-affected districts of Haryana

March 22, 2015 03:04 am | Updated 09:56 am IST - CHANDIGARH

In her longest tour of the State since her roadshow about a decade ago, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday visited the rain and hail affected districts of Haryana and urged the BJP governments at the Centre and in the State to provide immediate relief to the farmers.

Ms. Gandhi began her whirlwind tour of the State from Bhiwani district. At Bhandwa village here, she interacted with some farmers and local residents. Later she demanded that the State Government provide immediate compensation to the farmers to help them tide over their loss of the Rabi crops.

The Congress president said the farmers “just want relief and timely compensation.” She urged the government to provide them relief at the earliest.

Ms. Gandhi, who has been at the forefront of the Opposition’s campaign against the Narendra Modi Government on the issue of the Land Acquisition ordinance and had even led a delegation to the President recently, has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the farmers. On Friday, she had visited Kota district in Rajasthan where she had similarly demanded relief for the farmers whose crops had suffered due to unseasonal rain.

In Haryana, her visit also seeks to serve the twin purpose of bringing the various warring factions together. And this showed with her visit as apart from general secretary in-charge of the State Shakeel Ahmad, she was accompanied by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Chaudhry and Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Tanwar.

From Bhiwani, Ms Gandhi travelled to Rohtak which is represented by Mr.. Hooda’s son Deepinder Hooda in the Lok Sabha. Here too she met farmers and enquired about their well being.

Ms Gandhi has also included Karnal, the constituency of BJP Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, in her itinerary as she wanted to see the condition of the farmers in the constituency.

While talking to the farmers, Ms Gandhi spoke about how they used to get quick and adequate compensation for crop loss during the Congress rule. It was also pointed out that Congress used to pay a bonus on the minimum support price to the farmers and how the BJP governments were now dithering on implementing the Swaminathan Commission recommendations on MSP despite promising the same in their manifesto.

While farmers have suffered extensive losses on account of crop damage, the Haryana Government has so far announced a compensation of Rs. 10,000 per acre for 100 per cent loss while the Centre would be paying another Rs. 4,800 per acre for heavy crop damage.

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