New Delhi, December 09: The UPA government has decided to form a National Rehabilitation Commission to ensure adequate compensation and proper rehabilitation to people willing to part with their land for development, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday.
“The commission would ensure that villagers who are willing to part with their land for development were compensated adequately and rehabilitated properly,” she said.
“We want development but not at the cost of displacement of tribals,” Gandhi said while addressing a election meeting in East Singhbhum district.
Referring to the prevailing Naxal activities, she said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already said development work and law and order machinery will go along simultaneously.
The UPA government was ready for talks with Naxal outfits to find out an amicable solution to their problems but they would have to shun violence first, the AICC chief said.
Gandhi said the Congress was committed to development and maintaining peace so that benefits of various schemes reach the poor and tribals of the country.
Sonia Gandhi said mineral-rich Jharkhand was lagging behind on all fronts because of political instability for the last nine years and appealed to masses to vote for Congress, which would take the state forward on the path of development.
Claiming that Congress has always fought for the interest of the tribals and weaker sections of the society, Gandhi said former prime minister Indira Gandhi had nationalized the mining sector and framed mining policy which benefited local people and industries set up.
However, several of these industries were now closed owing to misrule of the previous governments, she said promising that Congress would take all possible steps to revive the closed units.
The UPA chairperson claimed that several welfare measures including introduction of midday meal in schools, distribution of bicycles and scholarship among meritorious tribal students, construction of two lakh houses under Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana have been taken ever since President’s rule in Jharkhand came into force.
People have voted the Congress-led UPA back to power at the Centre, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana only because of its performance, she said and appealed to give the Congress a chance to serve Jharkhand too.
–Agencies