Banda (Uttar Pradesh), April 30 (IANS) Attacking Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), top Congress leaders Saturday blamed the Mayawati regime for the prevailing backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand and announced they would strive for a special package for the region's development.

 
 A joint rally of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - his first in the region - and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi drew massive crowds, who applauded both leaders as they reiterated their committment to allocate a special package of Rs.7,300 crore for  various developmental programmes for transformation of the backward region.
 
 Since part of the Bundelkhand region is in adjoining Madhya Pradesh state, the prime minister called upon the governments of both states to rise above all political differences and join hands with the central government in the larger interest of the badly-neglected and impoverished people of the entire region.
 
 "In order to ensure a well co-ordinated and comprehensive development of the area, we have constituted a special advisory committee under the Planning Commission with all MPs from entire Bundelkhand as its members. It will hold its first meeting May 20," Manmohan Singh said.
 
 Responding to the issues raised by local Congress legislator Vivek Singh, who was the rally's organiser, the prime minister announced several specific programmes for Bundelkhand. These included a Rs.200 crore drinking water scheme, a 500 MW enhancement of power allocation, and setting up of a central agricultural university to facilitate improved agriculture in this water scarce region through augmentation of better irrigation facilities.
 
 Narrating his personal experiences of the extent of poverty he witnessed while travelling in the region, Gandhi stressed the need for implementation of the people's right to food.
 
 "The only way to prevent hunger deaths in this poverty-ridden area could be by giving people the Right to Food," Gandhi said, confessing how embarrassed he felt on learning from a local villager that his father died of hunger.
 
 He said the central government was more concerned about the plight of the people of Bundelkhand than was the state government in Lucknow.
 
 "Lucknow is only 200 km from Banda and Delhi is 455 km away, yet the pain of the people of this region has been felt by those sitting in Delhi alone, and not in Lucknow," said Gandhi.
 
 "I am grateful to those people from Bundelkhand who urged me to come down and see for myself how the poor people of this region lived. I must admit that if I had not taken the initiative to get a first hand experience, I would have never understood their true plight," he said.
 
 Accusing the state government of apathy and indifference, Gandhi alleged development funds were being pilfered and the poor were being deprived of their right in Uttar Pradesh.
 
 "It is shocking to learn that the poor farmer does not get three-fourth of the procurement price fixed by the central government for his produce," he said, while citing the example of the wheat procurement price of Rs.1,170 that was being blatantly denied to them.
 
 Referring to the quality of roads, he said: "I can see more of potholes in the name of roads."
 
 He also alleged large-scale bungling in issue of below poverty line (BPL) ration cards and job cards under the Mahtma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
 
 Speaking on the occasion, state Congress Legislature Party chief Pramod Tiwari gave a call to the people to oust the BSP from power at the next election. "BSP ko harao; Samajwadi Party ko
 hatao; BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) ko bhagao aur Congress ko lao (Defeat the BSP, remove the SP, chase away the BJP and bring in the Congress (to power))," was the new slogan he coined.
 
 State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, central ministers from state including Pradeep Jain Aditya, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N.Singh, Shriprakash Jaiswal as well as party general secretary and state in-charge Digvijay Singh were also present.