Rahul on yatra,Congress reports

Earlier today Shri Rahul Gandhi stopped at a rewra mithai shop in village Belaw of Muftiganj block in Kerakat tehsil of district Jaunpur. There he spoke to Pankaj Yadav and Sanjay Modanwal who were both drying the gatta and turning it into rewra. Shri Gandhi tasted the local sweet also with great glee and also asked Pankaj and Sanjay about the process of making the mithai right from buying the sugar to heating it into sheera (sugar syrup) then adding fitkari (soda) to it to finally beating the sugar syrup into the delicious dry sweet like a desi toffee.

Wednesday,November 2

Congress general secretary Shri Rahul Gandhi met a group of bunkars (weavers) of carpets in an eastern Uttar Pradesh village today,discussing their problems. And then,in another village,Shri Gandhi offered condolences to the widow of a young hawker who was forced to jump into the Ganges river and drowned to death when two police constables allegedly tried to extort money from him…

Earlier in the morning,Shri Gandhi visited the Vidyanchal temple in Mirzapur and also visited the dargah of Khwaja Ismail Chisti Rahematullah.

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Shri Gandhi visited a home with a carpet loom in Mallepur village,which is part of Mirzapur district. The village of approximately 10,000 people had a thriving community of bunkars even 20 years ago when at least 2,000 residents earned their livelihood as traditional weavers. Now only a handful,just 300 people,earn their living as weavers of carpets,for which the Mirzapur-Bhadohi region of eastern UP has been historically famous.

Shri Gandhi discussed the problems faced by the weavers with three villagers — Rajdev Shukla,Ravishankar Gond and Jokhuram Prajapati. The weavers apprised Shri Gandhi of their harrowing working conditions,low daily wages,decline in business and the rampant corruption of officials in UP that they had to deal with…

The three weavers,however,thanked Shri Gandhi for the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. They expressed gratitude to the UPA government for bringing the Rajiv Gandhi Swasthya Bima Yojana. All the three weavers are registered under this central government Health Insurance Scheme. They also thanked Shri Gandhi for the UPA government’s Bunkar Package announced in the last Union Budget.

During his interaction,Shri Gandhi was shown the intricacies of carpet-weaving by the weavers. Later he did a village chaupal in Mallepur.

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Shri Rahul Gandhi visited 22-year-old Zubaida,widow of Javed,a resident of Chillh village in block Kon in district Mirzapur. Shri Gandhi expressed his condolence at the death of Javed,an enterprising local youngster who worked as a hawker of biscuits and chips.

A few days ago Javed met with a tragic end when,his family members allege,he was chased by two police constables who were trying to extort money from the poor hawker. In a desperate attempt to escape from the two policemen,according to his family,Javed jumped into the Ganges river. He did not know how to swim and paid with his life.

Javed is survived by his old parents,his widow and two children Afreen (3 years old) and Salak (4 months old). Shri Gandhi also enquired about the police FIR on this issue…

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Earlier this morning,the Congress general secretary visited Vidayanchal temple,in Mirzapur. The temple [is one of the most popular temples in the entire region,drawing thousands of devotes every day.

Shri Gandhi also visited the dargah of Khwaja Ismail Chishti Rahematullah who was the nephew of Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti of Ajmer.