Gehlot charges Vasundhara government with being ''anti-farmer''

Jaipur, Dec 24 (UNI) Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today charged the Vasundhara Raje government in the state with being ''anti-farmer,'' as it had done nothing to aid agriculturists struggling hard to save their rabi crops in the face of acute shortage of water and urea.

Addressing a press conference here, the Congress leader said there were reports of acute shortage of urea in the state. ''The government totally failed to provide irrigation water and urea to the farmers and there were long queues for the fertiliser in the state,'' he claimed.

Charging the state government with using ''facist methods'' to suppress the farmers' agitation for irrigation water in Ganganagar district, he said about 50 farmers in the district were still languishing in jails and asked the government to find an amicable settlement to the issue.

Mr Gehlot also alleged that the three-year-old Vasundhara Raje government had ''centralised corruption'' for the regularisation of lands under 90B, and also accused it of favouring big builders at the cost of the poor farmers in the name of mega projects like ''IT Corridor'' and ''Knowledge Corridor.'' ''The government publicised of acquisition of farmers' land for the project and the big builders took advantage of the panicky selling by the farmers of their land. Now the government has droped the project altogether and the builders making merry'', he alleged.

''The administration is in disarray due to the non-transparent style of functioning of the Chief Minister,'' he added.

UNI PJJ Vd ht1512