Lucknow, May 19: Welfare schemes, which failed to reach an Uttar Pradesh village in six decades, will be launched there overnight, thanks to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s impromptu visit.
During the second day of her three- day tour, Gandhi stopped at Chhichhemau village in her Rae Bareli Parliamentary constituency for a while. Villagers informed her that they had heard about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MNREGS), the Indira Awas Yojana, the Old Age Pension Scheme etc, but none had reached their village for some strange reasons.
A visibly upset Sonia left the village at once and communicated her experience to the Union ministries concerned. Within hours, a large number of state government officials reached the village. A senior official said he had received an order from Lucknow to launch all central schemes in the village from Wednesday onwards.
“ We have been asked to identify BPL families and start giving them money under the Indira Awas Yojna. Elderly and disabled persons will also be given pension from June. Some projects under the MNREGS will be started in a day or two,” the official said.
—Agencies