BSP walks out of Rahul's NREGS workshop

Sultanpur (UP), Feb 16: BSP members of the Sultanpur district vigilance committee today walked out of a workshop on National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme organised by Congress MP from Amethi and committee president R ahul Gandhi, charging the Centre with having a biased attitude towards Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP members, led by party MP Mohd Tahir Khan, also regretted making Mr Gandhi the president of the vigilance committee.

They claimed that Mr Khan could have continued as the president as his LS seats had more assembly segments than Amethi. Mr Khan was removed as the president of the committee a year ago. The Amethi LS seat is part of the Sultanpur district.

The other BSP members who staged a walk out included Vinod Singh, a minister in the Mayawati goverment and MLAs O P Singh, Bhagelu Ram and Chandra Pal Mishra.

Later, talking to reporters, Mr Khan said the Centre had not been providing funds to the state for the Indira Avas Yojna and other developmental projects. After being removed s president of the committee, the BSP MP had never attended the meeting. He came to the workshop today and expressed his anguish to Mr Gandhi before staging a walk out.

He claimed that Mr Gandhi was already the vice-president of the Rae Bareli district vigilance committee. AICC president Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha.

During his last visit to Amethi in January this year, Mr Gandhi was informed about the poor implementation of centrally-sponsored NREGS.

He had informed the people's representatives of his plan to hold a workshop on NREGS by Bringing in experts from Andhra Pradesh, where the scheme was said to be functioning well.

UNI