Sonia condemns Mumbai violence

Aizawl, Nov 28 (UNI) Condemning in the strongest term the recent Mumbai terrorist attack, UPA chairperson and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today vowed that India would not rest until the culprits were booked.

Addressing an election rally at Lunglei town in south Mizoram, Ms Gandhi expressed sympathy to the victims and their relatives and said India would use all its might to repay the terrorists, who had killed innocent people.

The AICC chief also came down heavily on the ''corrupt'' Mizo National Front (MNF) government, which had been in power for the past ten years.

She said despite crores of rupees sanctioned by the Manmohan Singh government, Mizoram could not develop due to misutilisation of the fund by the ruling MNF in the state.

'' I am pained to see farmers in the rural area suffering from acute rice shortage due to the devastated bamboo flowering despite the Central government's Rs 125 crore food package and a special foodgrain programme, '' she said.

She also said the road condition in the state and the power supply in the rural areas were not satisfactory.

The compensation sanctioned for those affected by the Mizoram-Bangladesh border fencing in south Mizoram also did not reach the affected families, she alleged.

She asserted that the 20-year-long insurgency triggered by the Laldenga-led Mizo National Front ended due to the efforts of her late husband Rajiv Gandhi, but development could not take off during these 20 years of peace due to the ''corrupt'' MNF.

Ms Gandhi assured corruption-free and good governance if her party was elected to power in Mizoram.

All the development programmes initiated by the Congress Ministry had been ruined by the MNF Ministry such as Tuirial hydel projects, and the New Land Use Policy would be revived by a new Congress Ministry, she said.

According to sources from Lunglei, her public rally was the largest public gathering at Lunglei.

She left Lunglei after the hour-long rally to hold another rally at Kolasib in north Mizoram.

UNI ZS SJC RN1827