Dhamtari (Chhattisgarh): Attacking the BJP-led government in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday accused it of handing over the resources and wealth of the country to a few big industrialists and urged voters to exercise their franchise “carefully and wisely” in the assembly polls.

Addressing a rally in Kurud in Dhamtari district, she alleged that ports, airports and other infrastructure were being handed over to a particular industrialist. The Congress leader said people want jobs in government-run companies as they have a sense of security.

“It is not their property that they are selling at cheap rates. Take big government companies – railways, BHEL, HAL… today in whose hands they are. They were in your hands. You use to say get us jobs in these companies because we want security, want government job. In whose hands are the country’s ports, airports. It is in hands of Adani. Who is Adani. Is he a poor person, a farmer, a labourer. What does he manufacture?”

She said top industralists earlier were known for what they manufactured – what Tata made and also the things Birla makes. “Today, tell what does Adani, Ambaniji manufacture. Can anyone tell what they make. How many people work for them, how many jobs they give, you can’t tell… They don’t manufacture, what was yours has been taken. Nothing is being made for you. This was your property which should have gone in your pockets,” she alleged.

The Congress leader also said that the paddy farmers in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh earn more than the farmers in BJP-ruled states. “What is being given (by state government) for paddy in Chhattisgarh is not being given in any other state. When Modiji comes, he says that he is the one who is sending money for the purchase of paddy, but this is not the truth. In Uttar Pradesh, where BJP is in power, even today paddy is being purchased at Rs 1200-1400 (per quintal). Not only this, a farmer in PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, gets Rs 1200-1400 for paddy,” she said.

Congress in Chhattisgarh has promised paddy procurement at Rs 3,200 per quintal (20 quintals per acre), including input subsidy being given under the Rajiv Gandhi Nyay Yojna.

(ANI)