12th May 2011 Sonia Gandhi sought details of land acquired for rail factory
Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is presently on two-day tour of Rae Bareli since Wednesday.
Among others, she visited the Railway Coach Factory at Lalganj.
Railway Coach Factory in Rae Bareli is a prestigious project. It would generate huge employment opportunities for the people in that region. It will also create considerable amount of ancillary factories and business activities in the area.
She took a detailed tour of the factory and inspected the first coach produced in Lalganj. She examined the other 15 coaches all at different stages and had a look at the master plan of the factory layout. She spent nearly an hour at the place and interacted with the employees and higher functionaries
She also inspected the first fully-furnished state-of-the-art LHB design coach prepared by the factory along with other coaches in the process of completion. LHB is a state-of-the-art coach. No other railway factory is manufacturing such type of coaches. Keeping in mind the increasing demand of railways coaches every year, this Railway Coach Factory is set to expand in future the meet the demands of the railways.
Equally concerned about the acquisition of land timely payment to persons whose lands have been acquired for setting up the Rail Coach Factory, she took time to inquire about the status of land acquisition for the rail coach factory, which is coming up in her constituency, and the compensation paid to farmers so far.
She was told that about Rs 31 crore have been paid to 1,200 farmers as compensation to acquire about 700 acres of land for setting up the factory. She was also told that about 30 cases are pending due to various reasons, including those involving legal issues. Efforts were being made to pay compensation in about 25 cases.
As a Congress President Sonia Gandhi reinforced the party’s message by providing a positive signal that persons whose land was acquired by the government should invariably be paid fair compensation so that such persons did not have to face any financial hardship on this account.
Earlier, she addressed adolescent girls and aganwadi workers, who are beneficiaries of “Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of adolescent girls- SABLA”, a central scheme, and spoke on women empowerment. She said: “Life is full of difficulties for women and due to lack of awareness, women fail to utilise their potential. Without women empowerment wholesome development of the country is not possible.
The Congress chief later presented memento to two girls — Priya and Rizwana –who narrated their experience before the gathering.