14 March,2024 07:24 PM IST | Nashik | mid-day online correspondent
Rahul Gandhi at Trimbakeshwar temple. Pic/INC/X
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday visited the Trimbakeshwar temple in Maharashtra's Nashik city and offered prayers at the revered shrine, reported the PTI.
Trimbakeshwar is one of the 12 'jyotirlings' in the country.
Rahul Gandhi reached Nashik city in the afternoon as part of his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and held a roadshow and street-corner meeting.
Earlier in the day, the Congress leader addressed a farmers' rally at Chandwad in Nashik district along with NCP founder Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader
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Sanjay Raut, where he said the opposition INDIA bloc will be the voice of cultivators if it is voted to power in the country.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the opposition INDIA alliance, if voted to power, will be the "voice of farmers" and frame policies to protect them, reported news agency PTI.
Rahul Gandhi was addressing a farmers' rally at Chandwad in Maharashtra's Nashik district along with NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, as part of the Congress' ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'.
"The INDIA alliance government will be the voice of farmers and work to protect their interests," Rahul Gandhi said, reported PTI.
He promised loan waiver for farmers, restructuring of crop insurance scheme to benefit cultivators, to protect crop prices in formulation of export import policies and to make efforts to exclude agriculture from GST and work on only one tax.
The Lok Sabha member from Wayanad also reiterated the Congress' promise of a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) as per the Swaminathan committee report.
The former Congress president claimed 20 to 25 people in the country have wealth equivalent to 70 crore of the country's population, reported PTI.
The Narendra Modi government waived off Rs 16 lakh crore debt of industrialists, he further claimed.
"This amount is equivalent to 24 years of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) under which Rs 35,000 crore is spent every year to give employment to the poor people," Gandhi said, reported PTI.
He said the previous Congress-led UPA government had waived off Rs 70,000 crore debt of farmers.
"If the loans of rich people can be written off, farmers also should get the benefit," he said.
Criticising the Agnipath scheme (under which soldiers are enrolled as Agniveers by the armed forces), Gandhi said the Agniveers are excluded from pension and martyrdom status and are given training for only six months, reported PTI.
(with PTI inputs)
