Unlike his mother Sonia Gandhi who avoided criticising the Uttar Pradesh government during her recent three-day visit to her constituency of Rae Bareli, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday had no qualms in accusing the Mayawati government of creating hurdles in the development of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Citing the instance of a proposed plant of the Hindustan Paper Mill in Amethi, he said, “The project requires an investment of around Rs 3,000 crore and will give employment to over 25,000 people. The UP Government, however, says there’s no land available for the project. I am sure no citizen of Amethi would hesitate in giving his land for development.”

He said the farmers whose land was acquired for the project would get compensation and one member from each family would get a job.

Rahul Gandhi, who arrived on a three-day visit of his constituency — his first extensive tour after the Lok Sabha elections — was speaking at the inauguration of a stamping unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited at Jagdishpur.

Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was also present on the occasion, said, “Everything is ready for establishing the Hindustan Paper Mill here. Once the state government gives us land, we can start work within eight days.”

Deshmukh said he had personally written a letter to Mayawati to facilitate the process of land acquisition but has received no response yet.

“The state government has even returned the money which we had deposited for land acquisition,” said Deshmukh.

... contd.