Why is Smriti ignoring issues of Amethi youth: Priyanka

RAE BARELI: In a throwback to the electioneering of 2014, it was Smriti versus Priyanka once again in the Gandhi pocket borough of Rae Bareli. Priyanka Vadra on Wednesday questioned why Smriti Irani, in her capacity as Human Resource Development minister, was not looking into the stalling of the off-site campus of IIIT-Allahabad in Amethi.
“Why is Smriti Irani not addressing the issues of youth in Amethi and she should also tell us why she is not looking into the matter of the IIIT in Amethi,” said Priyanka.
Priyanka’s comments follow Irani allegations a day earlier in Amethi that three generations of Congress leaders had done nothing for the VIP constituency. The Union minister had also said Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi had done more for Amethi in 10 days, than Rahul Gandhi did in a decade as the constituency’s elected representative, even with the UPA-II in power.
The off-site campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad in Amethi has been stalled on grounds that it is financially unviable. It was inaugurated by Rahul Gandhi in 2005. In May 2014, however, the IIIT-Allahabad administration wrote to MHRD saying they were finding it difficult to run the project. Irani’s ministry has, since then, not issued any official word on the fate of the project.
Alleging political vendetta, Priyanka said other projects in Rae Bareli had been stalled by the Centre. In the last two months, Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi has written multiple letters to various Union ministries asking for both additional funds and clearances for projects being implemented in her constituency. She had, for example, sought additional funds for the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi (IGRUA) in Fursatganj, as well as sanction for operationalising the OPD of the Rae Bareli AIIMS project.
Asked to comment on the closure of the mega food park project in Amethi, Priyanka said: “Frankly, I haven’t tracked the progress of the park. My brother has spoken extensively on the food park issue and I share the same view.”
In April, Sonia had written to Union health minister J P Nadda to expedite clearances, delay in which had “hampered construction work relating to hospital and medical college, as also the purchase of medical equipment and required manpower to run the OPD, which is already complete.”
She had also written to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, raising concerns over the dismal record of campus placements at IGRUA, with only 30% of the successful trainees getting employed even after Air India and Qatar agreed to recruit pilots from the institute. In her letter, Sonia had also said Air India had committed to take 50% of its needs from IGRUA. “Yet, they are recruiting type-rated pilots, thus ruling out IGRUA product,” she said. Type-rated pilots are trained on a particular kind of aircraft like Boeing or Airbus.
This is not the first time Priyanka and Smriti have had a deferred face-off. In 2014, Smriti Irani had contested unsuccessfully against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi. Campaigning ahead of the elections had seen a long, drawn out verbal duel between Smriti and Priyanka, with the latter saying Amethi would teach Smriti a lesson for her “lowly politics” and for insulting Rajiv Gandhi, her martyred father. Responding to a question about Smriti’s remarks during the Lok Sabha campaign, Priyanka had dismissed the BJP leader saying “Smriti, who?”
One year on, however, Smriti has returned to Amethi with fresh stocks of fertilisers, sanction for doubling of the railway tracks between Unchahar and Amethi, a soil testing lab for farmers, and payment from her personal funds of the first premium of Pradhan Mantra Bima Suraksha Yojana for 25,000 farmers in Rahul’s constituency.