Gujarat Congress to organise farmers' rally from May 20

Ahmedabad, May 18 (UNI) Gujarat Congress will hold a ''Khedut (farmers)'' rally from May 20 to June 1 to highlight the problems faced by farmers.

Union Textiles Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela told reporters here today that the rally will commence from the temple town of Ambaji in Banaskantha district and will cover a total of 1434 kilometres after traversing through five districts.

Meanwhile, he said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to visit the state either on May 31 or June 1 and address a public meeting in Mehsana.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Vaghela said crores of rupees are spent by the Gujarat Government to organise foreign jaunts and sign MoUs, but, on the other hand, 300 farmers have committed suicide in the state while skilled workers are unemployed. ''No employment has been generated by the government despite commitment of crores of rupees,'' he said and demanded a white paper on these issues.

The BJP Government has only put the burden of a Rs 87,000-crore debt on the people of the state, he claimed.

The BJP government had promised generation of 14,000 MW of power but has managed to add only 400 MW, Mr Vaghela said while pointing out that the state requires 4000 MW more power which it has to, presently purchase at Rs 5000 crore.

Dismissing the state government's ''Jyotirgam'' scheme as a ''flop show'', he said that although the government had promised 12 to 14 hours uninterrupted power supply to farmers, yet they get hardly get five hours of supply. The state government has totally stopped providing new connections, Mr Vaghela said, adding the Congress would battle the ''dark zone the state government has, created for the farmers''.

For irrigation purposes, the Centre has provided Rs 4500 crore to the state, yet Rs 1000 crore of the amount has still remained unutilised, he said.

He alleged that the state government's ''Sujalam sufalam'' scheme was steeped in corruption and farmers, whose lands had been acquired, are yet to be compensated.

Mr Vaghela also alleged that the law and order situation in the state has deteriorated and lootings and chain-snatchings have become a common occurence. There has also been a rise in suicide cases in urban Gujarat, he said.

UNI