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Declare Bundelkhand drought-hit: Congress

Threatens stir if no relief is granted

Lucknow: Demanding that the rain-deficient Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh be declared drought-hit, Congress on Wednesday threatened to launch an agitation if the State Government failed to undertake relief measures in the area.

In a letter to U.P. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, State Congress vice-president Ganga Charan Rajput demanded that the loans of the farmers of the region be waived off and the employment guarantee scheme be launched in every village.

He said the entire region should be declared drought-hit immediately.

If the demands were not met by December 10, the Congress would launch an agitation in the State capital from the next day, Rajput said.

The Lok Janshakti Party also charged the Government with "turning a blind eye to the plight of the farmers of the drought-hit region".

The State Government is "discriminating" against the Bundelkhand region, LJP State spokesman Raj Kumar Ojha said in a statement here.

He claimed that a large number of farmers had committed suicide in the region which was reeling under "drought-like conditions" due to scarcity of rains.

"The Government is focusing only on developing Saifai (the Chief Minister's ancestral village)," Ojha alleged. The LJP was open for alliance with "like-minded parties" in the Assembly polls coming early next year, he said. Ojha alleged that BSP supremo Mayawati had "cheated" the Dalits of the State by "aligning with Manuvadi forces" and claimed the community was now "looking towards LJP".

PTI

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