Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today hinted that the development of a state could be expedited if the same party ruled in both state and Center.
He dropped this hint while interacting with students at Berhampur University. Replying to a question from Soumendra Pallur, a student of Ronald Institute of Engineering and Technology, “Why Orissa is lagging behind in development compared to other states”?, Gandhi gave the examples of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi to emphasize his point.
He, however, quickly added that the Centre never neglected non-Congress ruled states like Orissa even as another student lobbed a question at him on the assistance provided by the Union government to the state.
Gandhi is on a two-day visit to the state. As part of his mission to give a boost to the membership drive of National Students' Union of India (NSUI), he interacted with the college students at Cuttack and Berhampur today. He is scheduled to address student gatherings at Sambalpur and Baripada tomorrow.
Party leaders and the media persons were not allowed to the university auditorium, where he was holding meeting with about 1000 students from 30 different colleges. Braving the chilly weather, the students from Berhampur and nearby areas had come to interact with Gandhi.
Due to bad weather, Gandhi had to take his night halt at Gopalpur on Sea and postponed his Sambalpur visit to Thursday.
Several students expressed dissatisfaction as they were not allowed to the hall on security grounds.
“Basically, he told us about the utilization and empowerment of the youth mass for the development of the country. He compared the development achieved in last five decades in India and Japan”, said Pooja, a software engineer from Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology.
“I am very much impressed with his vision for the development of India linking education and politics. I think Rahul is the first politician in the country who has linked politics and education with economic development in the country”, she said.
Gandhi was accompanied by secretary of AICC Meenakhi Natarajan and NSUI president Habi Eden.
