Rajnath demands special agriculture distress zones

Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Oct 16: BJP president Rajnath Singh today demanded that the Centre declare special agriculture distress zones wherever the farmers were facing trouble.

The BJP chief, who was in the city after addressing a party workers rally in Bhokardan of Jalna district, referred to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Vidrbha tour and the special package he had declared. He alleged that 370 farmers had committed suicide even after the Prime Minister declared the package which proved that the package had turned out to be "meaningless." Speaking to newspersons here today, Mr Singh also demanded that the farmers be charged only 4 per cent on the crop loan. They should not be charged interest on crop loans for one year. He also demanded that the farmers should not be charged any interest if they had already paid the amount equal to the loan they had obtained.

While referring to the July 11 train bomb blasts in Mumbai, he demanded that the government make the evidence of Pakistan and ISI involvement known to the world. "The government should send all the evidence at hand to all our embassies across the world, so that they make the involvement of Pakistan in the blasts known to the respective nations, and pave the way for declaring that country as a rogue state." He urged the central government to snap all the ties with Pakistan till it stops cross border terrorism.

The government should make efforts to bring Pakistan and its nuclear programme under the world scanner.

To a question on three Jharkhand BJP MLAs caught in a sting operation today, he retorted that such a campaign was being deliberately launched by some interests against the BJP. "Let the facts come to me. We will not spare if any one is really engaged in corrupt practices," he said.

UNI