Sonia Gandhi in Shimla: FDI will benefit both farmers and consumers

Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, while addressing a well attended Congress rally on Tuesday at Shimla - the capital of poll bound Himachal Pradesh- attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government for lack of development in the state and also backed the UPA’s FDI policy..

Sonia Gandhi attacked the BJP for misleading the people on Foreign Direct Investment in retail. “It is for the benefit of the farmers and aam aadmi, the Central government has decided to allow FDI in retail. By this policy, the farmers will be able to get proper prices for their produce by selling their goods directly at the markets,” and added “Further the common man would be able to get their security needs at a fair and affordable price. The agricultural farmers suffer a lot because of the shortage of cold storages and their products get rotten. The FDI will address this serious problem also. But he BJP is engaged in false propaganda against our FDI in retail policy. The important thing is that every state has the liberty not to implement FDI in their state”.  “It seems that BJP is not at all bothered about the issues of the farmers and they are interested only to protect their narrow political interests,” quipped the UPA Chairperson.

Striking an emotional chord with the women in the region, Sonia Gandhi said “My speech will not be complete without remembering the contributions of my sisters of this beautiful state. I appreciate that the women here do fulfill their responsibilities in a commendable manner.  Aiming for further upliftment of the women in our society, especially my sisters in the hill areas, the Congress government implemented 50% reservation for women in panchayats. We also doubled the salaries of anganwadi workers. We also helped the women to avail bank loan at low interest rates through Self Help Groups”.

Taking on the BJP led state government the UPA Chairperson continued, “The rise in the prices of essential commodities is a serious matter of concern for us and we understand the difficulties of the common man due to this.  The Central Government has been putting in its serious efforts to control the price rise but the state governments also have a similar responsibility to take adequate measures to reduce the burden of the people. When the Congress run state governments increased the limit of gas cylinders from 6 to 9 to benefit my sisters there, why the state government here could not take such a step?”

This article is posted by pressbrief.in