Mission 2012: Fight,but don’t get personal,Rahul tells cadres in UP

The Gandhi scion was addressing a meeting of the Co-ordination Committee of Uttar Pradesh Congress,which laid down the agenda for “Mission 2012”.

The Committee asked party workers to fan out in villages and also decided on cutting itself down to size. Currently,it has nearly 500 members.

On the controversial issue of setting up a Bundelkhand Development Authority,the committee decided it would continue to pursue the demand in spite of opposition from the UP and MP governments. Gandhi also told the Committee members to communicate to the cadres that they are “fighting for issues affecting the people and not against any personality or party”,said Digvijay Singh,the AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh,who briefed the media.

The Committee also passed a resolution demanding a CBI inquiry into the arson incident at UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s residence.

It adopted a second resolution about the drought conditions in several parts of the state,seeking relief measures.

Joshi said the PCC would be reorganised and cut down in size,retaining only active members.

Clarifying the party’s position on the issue of Bundelkhand Development Authority,Singh said,“The opposition from the state government has come without actually deliberating on the issue. We will approach them and try to explain that formation of such a body would not interfere with the federal structure and would in no way cut down the powers of the state. Instead,the implementation of this authority has to be done by the state government.”

He said there is a provision for forming such an authority under Article 263 of the Constitution.

Singh said the state government had been asking for Rs 80,000 crore for Bundelkhand,but “there is no point in giving funds without any plan”.

“Otherwise,even these funds would be diverted

to construction of parks,” he said.

Pradeep Aditya Jain,Union Minister of State for Rural Development,raised the issue of the recent suicide of a debt-ridden

farmer in Lalitpur district,allegedly after damage to his crops.

After the meeting,Gandhi met Kranti Kumar,the owner of the house where Joshi lived. Later,he left for Amethi.