Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani pointed out here today that though Rahul Gandhi has served as a three-time MP from Amethi, yet the people of Amethi have never seen the Food Park project take shape and are hence questioning
the Congress's intentions.
"The Food Park which was sanctioned in 2010 never took shape when the Congress was in power at the Centre. Why is it that the project was delayed for over four years while the Congress was in government at the Centre? It is the answer that even the people of Amethi are asking their MP who has sought their help for the past ten years," Irani told ANI.
"For so long if the Congress has done a lot for the development of the constituency, why are then the people of Amethi still pleading for electricity, land, water?" she questioned .
The planned 200-crore project was expected to create thousands of jobs in under-developed Amethi. When the Congress-led coalition was in power, it had sanctioned the plant. Permission for the project has been cancelled by Prime Minister Modi's government reportedly because
of ambiguities involving land clearances. Earlier in the day, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that plans to scrap the food park in Amethi were indicative of the government practicing a 'politics of revenge'.
Gandhi further urged the government not to close the Amethi food park, which he claimed would bring about a massive change in the lives of farmers and also recounted his meeting with a farmer some years ago, who expressed surprise over the cost of chips sold in the market.