Sunday, Feb 22, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, FEB.21. Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central Government, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today accused it of trying to mislead the country by projecting an "artificial feel- good factor'' campaign while ground realities were quite different. In fact, the past five years had witnessed a continued decline in agricultural and industrial growth with a total neglect of the poor sections of society, she charged. Virtually launching her campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister ridiculed the Vajpayee Government for spending hundreds of crores on huge advertisements to create an impression that the country had made great strides during the past five years of its rule. Asserting that there was nothing to feel proud about, Ms. Dikshit said the poor continue to suffer and incidents of suicide by farmers had become a common thing due to the reckless policies of the Central Government. The people living in the rural areas were finding it difficult to make two ends meet in view of the continued rise in prices of essential commodities and the absolute collapse of the Public Distribution System network throughout the country. If there was a feel- good factor, then it was among black-marketers and scamsters who had looted the public exchequer and a few representatives of the Central Government who had figured in one scam after another, she remarked at a public meeting organised at Bawana in the Outer Delhi Parliamentary constituency. Emphasising that her Government had always worked for the development of the Capital into one of the best cities of the world, the Chief Minister said agricultural growth had declined sharply and the traditional village and khadi industries were facing a tough time including closure. Ms. Dikshit said five years of misrule by the NDA Government had resulted in extreme lopsided development. Despite making tall promises of providing one- crore jobs per year, the Vajpayee Government had been successful in increasing the number of unemployed people in the country. Farmers were not getting remunerative price for their produce that was lying unsold in the market due to connivance of authorities with unscrupulous traders. Ms.Dikshit said the feel - good campaign was nothing but blatant misuse of valuable taxpayers money by the NDA Government in order to project themselves as messiahs of progress. She said the Government was planning to increase the powers of the Rural Development Board in order to make it as a sole authority to resolve problems of the people residing in rural areas of the Capital on the lines of the Trans-Yamuna Development Board.
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