BJP pulls up Congress for neglecting drought like situation

New Delhi, July 26 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday hit out at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for its failure to take proper preventive steps to tackle the drought like situation across the country.

Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh accused the ruling government of failing to take effective steps to meet the challenges of drought.

"The Meteorological Department had earlier announced that this year, the rainfall has been 23 percent less as compared to last year. Even after getting all the information and indications from the meteorological department, the Central Government failed to take effective steps to meet the challenges of drought," he said.

Rajnath Singh further mentioned that the number of the suicide cases of the debt-ridden farmers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region was rising at an alarming rate.

As per certain data compiled by a non-government organisation, nearly 422 farmers have taken the hopeless step of ending their lives, as they were unable to re-pay their debts on time.

Rajnath Singh on this score blamed the Central Government for not making effective policies to utilize the unused foodgrains lying in silos and godowns.

"Huge quantity of food grains are rotting in the open areas while the poor are dying because of hunger. We are quite clear with the verdict of the Supreme Court that in case the government does not have proper storage system then the grains must be distributed among the poor," said Singh.

"The BJP appeals that these food grains must be distributed among the poor in the drought -affected regions in order to avoid cases of suicide due to hunger," he added.

Rajnath Singh also urged the government to table the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill 2011 in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

"I would appeal that the Congress-led UPA Government should table the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill-2011 in the ensuing Monsoon Session of Parliament and it must be passed for enactment," he said.

The government proposes to make the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill easier to acquire land to set up factories, roads and power plants, resolving one of the biggest barriers to sustaining strong economic growth. (ANI)