BJP warns of agitation on betrayal of 'Aam Admi'

Lucknow, Dec 24: Accusing the Congress led 'rag-tag' UPA coalition at the Centre of turning a blind eye to the problems of the common man, the BJP today served notice to the government to be ready to face a nationwide agitation for repeated betrayal of 'Aam Admi and farmers'.

In the resolution moved on the final day of the three-day BJP conclave, the party said while the sensex in Mumbai Stock Exchange crossed 13,500 mark, the government was turning a blind eye to the ever rising farmer's suicide index.

The Prime Minister's trumpeted debt relief package for the farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra had proved to be a failure as the deaths of indebted farmers continued to rise even after the Prime Minister's visit. ''This has happened because the UPA government has refused to address the root of the problem with a sense of priority,''said the resolution which was moved by senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

Low agricultural productivity, lack of irrigation facilities, growing gap between input and output costs, lack of access to science and technology inputs, near-collapse of the institutionalised credit mechanis for small and medium farmers, poor marketing of agriculture produce, poor implementation of crop insurance were some of the shortcomings which came under sharp attack from the BJP in its resolution.

''Suicide by distressed farmers, especially in the Congress-ruled states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab is the most shocking manifestation of the deepening agrarian crisis,'' the resolution said.

The BJP was particularly harsh on the neglect of the development of rural infrastructure which acording to the pary was best exemplified by the UPA's sidelining of the previous Vajpayee government's ambitious programme of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.''The NDA government had aimed to connect every village in the country with a population of 1000 and more with good all-weather roads but the target is nowhere near achievement,''BJP pointed out.

Charging UPA with abondoning the home -grown food security, based on adequate, affordable, nutritious and balanced food for every Indian citizen, the BJP said the recommendation of National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr M S Swaminathan was ignored by the present ruling dispensation at the Centre.

The Commission had recognised that this needs should be met by incraesed production by Indian farmers, made possible by increased agricultural prodctivity and remunerative prices for agriculture produce but the case was entirely opposite, it said.''Wheat production is being deliberately reduced every year with 206 lakh MT to just 92 lakh MT in 2006,''the BJP charged.

Paying utmost importance to the plight of 'Aam Aadmi (Common man), the BJP came down heavily on the UPA for its failure to contain 'skyrocketing' prices of essential commodities.''Pulses have nearly disappeared from the regular meals of poor families,....the prices of fertlisers and medicines are going up day by day making the life of common man miserable,''it said. Adding ''Per capita food consumption among the poorest section of society today is less than what it was 20 years ago.'' Giving a comparative picture of inflation, the BJP said the average rate of inflation during the NDA's six-year regime was 3.4 per cent while during 30 months of UPA's rule, it was five per cent and above. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) had gone up to 7.7 per cent during the current quarter with shortage of cooking gas and kerosene hitting the people hard, it was alleged.

Linking price rise of all commodities and services to the price hike of petrol and diesel, the resolution said the 'token' reduction in the prices of these was done under the pressure of BJP but it was not commensurate with the actual dip in the price of oil in global market. It went on to say that even the CPI and CPI(M), the partners in the UPA, had to complain the sops were ' too little, too late' and the CPI leader A B Bardhan had stated ''the UPA government has messed up the whole siatution.'' Decrying what it described as 'communist hypocrisy', the National Council of BJP said while highlighting the Congress's betrayal of 'Aam Aadmi', deemed it necessary to expose the hypocrisy and duplicity of the communist allies in the UPA.

Dubbing the UPA government as 'anti-employess',,'anti-middle class' and 'anti-senior citizens', the BJP said unlike the good management by NDA, the UPA rule had sent the interst rates on housing and other loans heading northwards even though the rates in various deposit schemes were more or less stagnant. ''The UPA had earlier exhibited its anti-working class nature by redducing the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) rate from 9.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent hurting especially the retired people and senior citizens,''the BJP charged.

The BJP National Council made a fervent appeal to the UPA to wake up from its deep slumber and take immediate and effective steps to alleviate the suffering of the common man, farmers, workers, middle class and senior citizens.''Its failure to do so will invite the wrath of the people and undoubtedly endanger its survivalin office,'' BJP warned.

BJP demanded streamlining of Public Distribution System (PDS) and make it free from corruption through effective social audit and control, a basket of essential food and non-food items for all BPL families on the lines of Antoyodaya Anna Yojana, re-designing of National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), hike in EPF and other deposit interest rates and to accept ideas of BJP with regards to SEZs especially not to acquire or allot fertile land for setting up such projects.

UNI

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