Woman SHG members shower Rahul with roses

Belur, Karnataka, Mar 27 (UNI) Congress' youth icon Rahul Gandhi continued to jump the tight security cordon during his 'Discover India tour' and today he stopped to accept roses offered by nearly 1000 woman members belonging to SHGs at this village in Bagalkot district today.

Similar action by the Congress MP, who is on a 5-day visit to the state to 'feel the pulse of the common people', during his recent visit to Orissa had caused jitters to the security agencies.

This time too he could hardly resist the chance to meet the people as the large group of woman, holding roses in their hands, waved him to stop.

Not caring about his personal security, Mr Gandhi made a unscheduled stop by bringing his convoy to a halt and rushed towards the group.

The excited women also rushed towards him and offered him the roses. He obliged by personally accepting the roses from nearly 125 of them, one by one, and later continued with his journey.

Mr Gandhi asked the woman about the financial status and their achievements as members of SHGs. They told him how the SHG movement had made a big difference in their life and said many of them were now in a position to maintain their families on their earnings.

"Please ask the banks to increase the allocation for SHGs. We can achieve bigger things if we get more financial allocation. Mind you, we have been the best repayers and have not defaulted the loans even once," they stressed.

Earlier Mr Gandhi made a similar gesture by stopping at a school while traveling from University of Agricultural Sciences campus to NTTF near Hubli.

When he saw school children playing in the premises of Presentation School, he ordered the driver to stop the car. He walked briskly towards the school gate even as the security personnel followed him.

The thrilled students virtually stormed around him, gave out a roar with glee and each of them extended their arms to shake hands with the young leader. Mr Gandhi did not disappoint them and then continued with his journey.

Mr Gandhi had made similar unscheduled stops at Siraguppi Government High School near Hubli and Nehru Vidya Niketan at Annigeri in Gadag district.

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