Govts should focus on development: Sonia

In an attack on the non-Congress governments in Uttar Pradesh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi yesterday said the development of the state had come to a halt as the governments got involved in politics.

"It is better if the job of raking up political issues is left to the political parties and the governments should concentrate only on works of development. But the difficulty is that the governments themselves get involved in politics, which is not fair," Gandhi said after inaugurating a computer training programme at the Feroz Gandhi Polytechnic here.

"The development of Uttar Pradesh has come to a halt in the last few years because of this reason," she said adding "the people need development and not political slogans."

Gandhi said it was her endeavour to take the country on the path of development as dreamt by her late husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

"We are trying to take the country on that path. Wherever there are the Congress governments, difficulties are not that much but in cases where other governments are in power, I can only hope they will also follow suit," she said.

She said Rajiv Gandhi had dreamt of all-round development of the country where people got proper education, women got respect and power, and there was equal development in the rural and urban areas.

She said that the 21st century would be known for revolutionizing the field of information and technology and "we should take pride that the country is following the path shown by the late Rajiv Gandhi."

The Congress president who inaugurated the Java technology training programme for the teachers of different schools in the district handed over the certificate of authorisation on behalf of Sun Microsystems, a Bangalore-based firm.

She said that it would herald a new era in the field of IT in the district as it would produce skilled people.

Gandhi said the company was started by an Indian, Vinod Khosla. She hoped that the students from the area would carve a niche for themselves despite the stiff competition.

It was our responsibility to provide the right kind of atmosphere to our students so that they could excel in life, she added.

The training programme envisages providing training to two teachers each from sixteen schools of the district who would thereafter impart the same to the students of the respective schools. The programme aimed at churning out 3,000-4,000 Java skilled youth in the next 2-3 years, a company official said.

The principal of the polytechnic said the AICTE had given a clearance for converting the polytechnic into a engineering school.