Vajpayee takes a dig at Shiv Sena

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 25. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today indirectly criticised the BJP's allies for the manner in which they expressed discontent with the party.

At a function organised by the BJP Yuva Morcha here to celebrate his 76th birthday, he called upon the allies to adopt more dignified ways of expressing their reservations against Government policies. Taking a dig at the Shiv Sena, which recently burnt his effigy here, he said its activists came to greet him in the morning on the pretext that the birthday symbolised ``rebirth''. Such things made for good news copy but did not gel with Indian tradition.

``Similarly, wearing black flags and badges is a foreign concept. It can be inferred as humiliation to the world's non-white population. There are better ways of expression such as peaceful dharnas, which again should be within limits. You can criticise the policy but there is no place for violence.''

The Prime Minister did not mince words when he said banning of beauty contests, as in Uttar Pradesh, should not mean hiding the inner beauty of a person. ``By banning exposure of external beauty, one should ensure that the inner beauty is not suppressed.''

Snubbing his critics, Mr. Vajpayee said there was no need for pessimism as the country was on its way to progress.

Roads, food schemes

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, DEC. 25. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today launched a Rs. 60,000-crore `Gram Sadak Yojna' for linking all villages in the country with pucca roads by 2007 and the `Antyodaya Anna Scheme' for providing cheap foodgrains to the `hungry poor' under the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme (TPDS) at an additional subsidy burden of Rs. 2,300 crore. For the ambitious `Gram Sadak Yojna' (rural roads scheme), Rs. 2,500 crore - which has come from the diesel cess - will be spent before March, 2001.

Launching the programmes on his 76th birthday, the Prime Minister said the two projects will play a vital role in accelerating the socio-economic development in rural areas and in bridging the rural-urban divide. (The implementation of the scheme was simultaneously launched today in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.)

In a pointed reference to criticism from farmers about their interests not being protected in the ongoing process of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Prime Minister said an impression was being created that the economic reforms were resulting in unemployment.

``On the contrary, statistics show that employment opportunities have gone up and the percentage of poor people have gone down. We are a member of the WTO which was a decision of the previous Government. But now that we are a part of the WTO, the Government and the industry have to be prepared to meet the challenges. If imports harm our industry, then there are provisions to raise duty, which we do.''

He said the Government had taken several steps in the last two and a half years to improve the lot of the farmers such as issuance of credit cards, soft loans for cold storages, watershed management and more funds for rural development.

``Sometimes, there is money for development, but no projects to utilise that money.''

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