Rahul Gandhi in Amethi: BJP inaugurating UPA projects

Rahul Gandhi in Amethi on Thursday. (Source: PTI)

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday read out a list of projects the government is slated to open next week in Amethi and said all these were UPA-era developments for which the ruling party was now taking credit.

“That is our work…. I am very happy that my BJP friends are trying to inaugurate these projects again. But these works for Amethi have been done by us,” Rahul told reporters on his second day of visit to his constituency.

The list had 12 projects — a 200-bed hospital in Tiloi, an FM radio station, a sainik school, Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, Institute of Hotel Management, Kendriya Vidyalaya, new unit of SAIL in Jagdishpur, Amethi-Unchahar rail line, Rae Bareli-Amethi rail line doubling, multi-function complex at Amethi railway station, four-laning of Lucknow-Sultanpur NH-56 and bypasses for national highways at Musafirkhana, Jagdishpur and Amethi.

Rahul was talking to reporters outside the under-construction 200-bed hospital in Tiloi block.

Read | On first visit to Amethi since assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi strikes a different chord

BJP district vice-president Govind Singh Chauhan admitted that most of the projects mentioned by Rahul would be inaugurated next week. “But the claim of the Congress vice-president is baseless. The budget for these projects was sanctioned and work started in Narendra Modi government because of efforts of union minister Smriti Iraniji,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Rahul reiterated remarks about employment he has made for the past several days.

“China produces 50,000 jobs every single day and India provides only 450 jobs under PM Narendra Modi’s Start Up and Stand Up India programmes. Every single day, 3,000 youngsters come into job market….This is a crisis. Mr Narendra Modi should accept that there is a crisis and… should start to resolve this crisis instead of panicking and making excuses,” Rahul said.

He added that the farm crisis was another issue. Farmers were committing suicide because they simply cannot see the path forward.

“While we have two massive crises, our PM is panicking, sometimes talking about Make in India, sometimes talking about Swachh Bharat,” Rahul said.