Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi seems to have made it his habit to nettle UP chief minister Mayawati every time he visits the state. He did it again, on Monday, when he arrived for a three-day tour of his constituency Amethi.
This time, the issue was a piece of land the state government was supposed to provide for a huge paper mill project in Jagdishpur, which is part of Amethi. “The Hindustan Paper Mill project is ready… it would give jobs to about 25,000 people. But the state government is not giving the land for this project,” Gandhi said at a public meeting in Amethi. “Apart from giving employment to thousands of local people, farmers would also get work as eucalyptus trees are needed for producing paper.” Heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has also charged the government with sidelining development for petty politics.
Rahul told the gathering that it was a Rs3,000-crore project, and that apart from getting compensation for the land, one person from each family whose land is acquired, would get employment in the paper mill.
The latest spat over a mega project in the Nehru-Gandhi family borough has set the stage for another Congress-BSP stand-off. There has already been some unseemly wrangling between the two over the Rs1,685 crore rail coach factory project in Rae Bareli. In that episode, the Mayawati government had finally relented and provided the land needed for the factory. Rahul was here to dedicate the centralised stamping unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).
When his turn came, Heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also lashed out at Mayawati, accusing her of playing “petty politics” and ignoring development.
