Rae Bareli: Notwithstanding backwardness
of Rae Bareli, the Parliamentary constituency of Congress
president Sonia Gandhi, people have unflinching faith in their
representative but questioned role of local Congress
legislator.
"We are grateful that she (Gandhi) visits us
every couple of months but what about the local legislator and
officials. They come only in five years", this was the common
refrain of the people of various villages which were visited
by Gandhi during her three-day visit ending today.
"Whatever schemes have come here are because of her and
we recognise only her and no one else," they said.
Residents of Behta Kala, one of the dozen villages
toured by Gandhi where she heard their grievance in sweltering
heat, said they were happy to have a representative who
personally takes care of their problems.
The electorate on large complained about rampant
corruption in development works launched by the centre.
They told the Congress president that local
contractor demands at least Rs 500 for providing power
connection under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural electrification
scheme which otherwise should come free, names of many
deserving people missing from BPL list, poors and widows
losing all hope of getting themselves enlisted for pensions.
But, they had faith in the efforts of their leader.
"We don`t know when our complaints would be redressed
but we are sure that Gandhi will make every effort possible
for their redressal", Pratap Bahadur Singh, whose house she
visited, said.
In another village, Gandhi was apprised as to how the
Indira Awas Yojna is being run and how it is not being
extended to villages like Chichemau depriving the needy of a
roof on their heads.
The villagers of Khajuria pointed out that their
representative is committed to their upliftment. Gandhi took a
serious note of the complaint about irregularities in MNREGS
and the role of the village pradhan in it, they said.
"Though she had left for further journey, she (Gandhi)
made a detour as she was not satisfied and decided to visit
the house of the pradhan, who is a close relative of a local
MLA belonging to another party, to tell him to take corrective
steps," residents of Khajuria village said.
Majority of villagers feel having a non-Congress
government in the state was responsible to "some extend" for
these problems.
PTI
