In CM's segment, Sonia reminds BJP of rulers' responsibility

KARNAL: The much-publicized visit of Sonia Gandhi to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar's assembly constituency, Karnal, turned out to be a disappointing affair for farmers who had gathered at Bara Gaon and Dabkoli Kalan villages on Saturday in large numbers. They had come to narrate their woes to the Congress president.
Security agencies cordoned off the areas where Sonia descended on the village fields to take stock of the damage to crops due inclement weather.Farmers Atma Ram, Krishan, Vedpal and Om Prakash, who managed to meet Sonia Gandhi, alleged that instead of listening to their woes, the Congress chief cold-shouldered them by saying that their case would be taken up with the Union government.
The AICC president first reached Bara Gaon near Kunjpura, where she said that the Union and state governments should take responsibility and come forward to compensate the farmers who were facing worst crop loss in years. She said that the BJP government should not turn down the pleas of the peasantry and should help the cultivators in distress.
At Dabkoli Kalan too, she aired the same views, adding that it was evident that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government had distanced itself from the cause of the common man, especially the farmers. She, however, said that the Congress would always stand by the farmers and would put in an all efforts to ensure that their interests were not sidelined by the government.
She said that the farmers only wanted to get relief. "I appeal to the government to give right and timely compensation to these farmers. It is government's responsibility," she said while interacting with the farmers in the presence of Haryana Congress leaders.