Sonia gheraoed by teachers seeking raise

Rae Bareli: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday faced embarrassment when at least 12 teachers from Kasturba Gandhi school squatted in front of her vehicle demanding release of salaries. The incident happened right on the premises of Collectorate where the Congress president had arrived to attend a meeting of district coordination committee (DCC) in her parliamentary constituency, Rae Bareli, to visit some of the villages.
The teachers had waited from more than an hour to meet Sonia and as she walked straight to a waiting SUV after emerging out of the meeting hall, the teachers blocked the cavalcade. It was only after Sonia alighted out of her car and heard them out that the teachers left.
Earlier in the day, she took strong note of people in a couple of villages telling her that work under various Central schemes, including the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), started during the previous UPA regime, had been stopped.
Sonia, who moved in and around more than half a dozen villages, skipped Udawa, the village adopted by PM Narendra Modi under the National Adrash Gram Yojana. It was uncertain whether she would go to the village even on Friday. Congress sources and officials accompanying Sonia said it was an open schedule as of now. Sonia was apprised about the poor status of NREGS, old age pension scheme and Indira Awas Yojana in Gosain ka purwa village where a group of men and women surrounded her and alleged that the schemes are going largely unimplemented for more than couple of months.
In her more than 3 hours detour, Sonia went from one house to another, met their inhabitants, and tried to understand their problems. Emerging from Fursatganj airport at around 10.30am, Sonia went straight to Malin-Ka-Purwa village which is largely a dalit dominated village. Here, she was told by a group of women that self-help groups constituted during UPA regime had been disbanded. “How did that happen,’’ Sonia said, adding she would inquire about it.
Sonia’s cavalcade then moved to Dohri village where people said there was no education or hospital facility available. From schoolchildren to women to physically disabled, Sonia tried to meet everyone and asked about status of various Central schemes initiated during UPA government.