New Delhi: JD-U on Thursday took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav over the plight for farmers in Bhatta Parsaul and Bundelkhand, saying nothing was done to ameliorate their lot although both leaders visited these areas.
"Farmers are committing suicide in Bundelkhand. Ponds have dried up there and agriculture is in a bad shape. Rahul Gandhi frequently toured Bundelkhand and had even announced a package for the area. Akhilesh Yadav had promised that farmers` loan will be waived off.
"The condition of farmers in Bundelkhand is pathetic and I ask both Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to take steps. After all governments of their parties are there at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh," party president Sharad Yadav told reporters here.
Yadav said a three-member team of his party will visit Bundelkhand for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.
The JD-U chief said that more than 30 farmers of Bhatta Parsaul continue to languish behind bars on murder charges although the leaders from Congress and Samajwadi Party had taken personal interest in the farmers` agitation against land acquisition during BSP government`s tenure.
"Rahul Gandhi had then courted arrest over the farmers` issue in Bhatta Parsaul. Both before the formation of their government as also after it, Samajwadi Party had promised that the cases lodged against the agitating farmers would be withdrawn. Both Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav had announced they would do it.
"I have written letters to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Miinster twice but nothing has happened except formal replies from him. Rahul Gandhi had promised a new land bill to take care of such problems but it is still to see the light of the day," the JD-U leader said.
He said that his party will raise the issues of the pending land acquisition bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
PTI
