Silent undercurrent brewing across west UP against Modi govt's 'failures': Congress

The Congress on Friday claimed that a silent undercurrent is brewing across western Uttar Pradesh against the failures of the Modi government as it flagged issues such as neglect of sugarcane farmers and examination paper leaksCongress general secretary Jairam Ramesh attacked the BJPled central government ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis poll rally in AmrohaTodays questions for the PM as he heads to UP Why has the BJP neglected UPs sugarcane farmers Rs 20000 crores later why is the Ganga still Indias most polluted river Is the Modi Sarkar doing anything to prevent paper leaks he askedElaborating on what he said were jumla details Ramesh said Uttar Pradesh is Indias largest sugarcane producer and yet the BJP government has neglected farmers calls to increase the price of sugarcanePrices stand at just Rs 360quintal in UP much lower than Rs386quintal in Punjab and Rs391quintal in Haryana Price hikes have also failed to keep pace with inflation and farmers are now struggling due to the rising cost of fertiliser and pesticides he saidArea under cultivation has come down by almost 4000 hectares in the last three years he saidAmidst sugarcane shortages mills are struggling to pay sugarcane farmers on time and there are fears that some may shut down permanently Ramesh saidThis vicious cycle is threatening the livelihoods of sugarcane farmers and mill workers but the BJP government is nowhere to be seen What is the double Anyay BJP government doing to support sugarcane farmers and mill workers in UP he said in a post on XNoting that in 2014 PM Modi had promised a cleaner Ganga through his governments flagship Namami Gange programme Ramesh said the project sanctioned an outlay of Rs 20000 crore between 2014 and 2019 and 815 new sewage treatment plants STPs had been built or proposed by 2021The Ministry of Jal Shakti claims that there has been a marked improvement in the state of the river but as is often the case with this government that claim turned out to be a boldfaced lie Ramesh saidThe Sankat Mochan Foundation found that rather than improving water quality in the Ganga has actually been degrading faecal coliform bacteria levels are a staggering one million times higher than the permissible limit of 500 per 100 millilitres he saidRamesh said the Central Pollution Control Board also found that water quality does not comply with their standardsWhile the Ministry of Jal Shakti claims that new STPs are working fine a professor at IIT Varanasi said they were utterly useless and that the governments plans were completely bogus Furthermore as early as 2017 a CAG audit report of the project noted deficiencies in financial management planning implementation and monitoring the Congress leader saidTo make matters worse contracts for STPs have been awarded to companies with wellestablished links to the BJP In 2017 a 150 crore STP contract was given to a company chaired by former BJP MP Subhash Chandra that had no record of working in sewage treatment he allegedAnother plant is operated by the Adani group and scientific studies worth 5 crores have been awarded to the Patanjali Organic Research Institute he saidNoting that last year the Central Pollution Control Board declared the Ganga the most polluted river in India Ramesh asked what have the Indian taxpayers Rs 20000 crores achievedUnder the Modi Sarkars reign more than 43 papers for government recruitment exams have been leaked hurting at least 2 crore candidates Most recently 60 lakh applicants for the UP Police Exams had their futures clouded when exams were cancelled due to paper leaks he saidThese are not just numbers it is the hopes and dreams of Indias youth that are hanging in the balance Ramesh assertedUnder its Yuva Nyay Guarantee the Congress has committed to bringing robust legislation that will design institutions and best practices to prevent paper leaks from occurring in the first place What is Mr Modis vision to address the harm done to our youth he saidAs the PM visits West Uttar Pradesh it is important to remember that while he may have engineered the flight of the RLD from the INDIA bloc to the NDA the real Lok Dal is still with INDIA and that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in West Uttar Pradesh was welcomed with hoardings and banners of Choudhary Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi Ramesh saidA silent undercurrent is brewing across this region against the failures of this Government he said and asked the PM to break his silence on these issues