PM Modi launches projects worth Rs 1,100cr, slams Congress in Sonia's turf Rae Bareli

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone for developments projects worth Rs 1,100 crore on his first trip to Rae Bareli, the traditional seat of the Gandhi family.
Setting the tone for the 2019 general elections, PM Modi underlined a range of programme introduced by BJP in Rae Bareli across health, housing and employment sectors criticising Congress for not being able to deliver in a region that is considered to be its homeground.
After flagging-off the 900th coach and a Humsafar Rake of Modern Coach Factory, PM Modi targeted Congress for delaying development work in Rae Bareli and assured that the factory will become a "global manufacturer".
"This factory was sanctioned in 2007 and was built in 2010. For 4 years parts of the coach from Kapurthala were assembled and painted here. The factory that was supposed to make new coaches was never allowed to work at its full capacity. This factory will become a global manufacturer of rail coaches," said the prime minister.
The PM addressing the people of Rae Bareli said that the factory will bring employment to the region.
"If capacity of Modern Coach Factory is increased it will give employment to youth. Think of the time when 10-12 coaches will be made here in a day. The expansion of this factory will bring employment for engineers and technicians,"he said.
PM Modi added that while the earlier government said 5,000 employees will be hired for work in the factory, "Only half of these recruitments were approved. Not just that, in 2014 we noticed that no new recruitment was done in this factory."
Other than the rail coach factory, PM Modi speaking about the AIIMS branch that is due to come up in Rae Bareli said that the work on building a medical college and hospital is on fast track.
PM Modi said that the BJP has assisted the locals in Rae Bareli to open 8 lakh bank accounts, providing 1.45 lakh gas connections and electrifying 55,000 houses.
The prime minister's visit is being seen as a strategy of the BJP to pin the Congress leadership in their respective constituencies in the 2019 general election. Rae Bareli is represented in the Lok Sabha by former Congress chief and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
While Sonia Gandhi has not visited Rae Bareli since April, senior BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani who is the Lok Sabha candidate from Raebareli have been mobilising locals focussing on the issues that the region faces.
Sonia Gandhi visited the constituency in mid-2016. Also, she did not campaign in the constituency during the 2017 UP election, after she developed a health issue during a roadshow in Varanasi. On the other hand, Union finance minister and Rajya Sabha member Arun Jaitley had recently spent his Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) funds on developmental works in the constituency and UP CM Yogi Adityanath had visited Rae Bareli to oversee preparations for Prime Minister's visit. He also took a tour of the rail coach factory.
Modi's visit was planned before the counting of votes polled in the five states was taken up on December 11, following which the Congress party threw out BJP governments in three states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
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