In Amethi, Rahul lauds Karnataka farm loan waiver

Amethi, July 5: Congress president Rahul Gandhi today termed loan waivers justice for farmers, mentioning Karnataka where the Congress-JD(S) government announced a scheme earlier in the day to write off debts of Rs 34,000 crore.

"In Karnataka, our government has waived the loans of farmers, he told a gathering on the last day of a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.

We are only asking for justice. If you can waive the debt of the richest people, you need to do it for farmers as well," he said during the meeting with farmers at Mukutnath Inter College in Gauriganj's Tala Khajuri village.

He said if the Congress comes to power in the next Lok Sabha elections farmers will be our top priority .

Gandhi said petrol and diesel will be brought under the Goods and Services Tax under the Congress government.

When our government comes to power in 2019, we will change the GST, there will be one tax. Things which are used most by the people will be exempted and petrol and diesel will be brought under its ambit," he said.

He mentioned a plan for a food park in his constituency with 40 to 50 units manufacturing items like chips, pickles and ketchup.

He said the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had snatched the project from Amethi.

"You must have heard that a food park of Baba Ramdev is coming up in Noida, but not in Amethi, the Congress chief said.

It is my promise to the farmers of Amethi, Raebareli and Sultanpur that once we come back to power, the food park, bigger than the one planned earlier, will come up here so that you can get the right price for your produce. And I will inaugurate it," he said amid applause.

Gandhi said he would help the farmers in Amethi to get the necessary technical knowhow.

Gandhi said he believed that the country cannot progress unless the farmers are helped.

This is the difference between our thinking and that of the NDA and Narendra Modiji who has faith in himself and 10 to 15 officials around him, but not the farmers," he said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi held a 'janata darbar' at the Congress office in Gauriganj, the district headquarters, where he heard people's grievances.

Former Union minister Sanjay Singh and his wife Ameeta Singh also met him.

"A discussion on how to make the Congress stronger in Uttar Pradesh was held with Rahul Gandhi," Singh said later.

Sangita Anand, daughter of former Uttar Pradesh minister and senior BJP leader Ram Lakhan Passi, and her husband also talked to him.

Asked about the meeting, Anand said she was there to see "my MP and nothing else".

Gandhi visited party leader Baijnath Tiwari, whose wife passed away recently, to offer condolences and met former Amethi block pramukh Ram Murti Shukla.

In Naraini village, he paid homage to CRPF jawan Anil Maurya who was killed fighting Naxalites in Chhattisgarh.

PTI