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District committee headed by Smriti Irani passes resolution hailing PM Modi in Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli
This is the first time since replacing Sonia Gandhi to the government panel that is reconstituted after each Lok Sabha election that Smriti Irani chaired the committee meeting in Rae Bareli
Nearly a month after she hurled the “Rae Bareli has two MPs” barb at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani arrived in Rae Bareli to chair a meeting of the District Development and Coordination Monitoring Committee which passed a resolution hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and thanking him for a variety of reasons.
Sonia Gandhi, who was replaced as the head of the government panel in July, is the co-chairperson of the committee, whose resolution praising Modi was shared by Smriti Irani after the meeting, the first in nearly three years.
This is the first time since replacing Sonia Gandhi to the government panel that is reconstituted after each Lok Sabha election that Smriti Irani chaired the committee meeting in Rae Bareli which till now was presided by Gandhi, the Lok Sabha MP since 2004.
“DISHA Rae Bareli passed a resolution thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Covid vaccination, Rae Bareli AIIMS, free ration, piped water in rural areas and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) dispensary,” Smriti Irani tweeted on Saturday.
“Though as per protocol and convention, the Lok Sabha MP usually chairs the DISHA meeting, but since a part of Salon assembly segment of Rae Bareli is part of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, hence technically, Smriti Irani too could head the government panel in Rae Bareli,” an official said. The official explained that government panel in Rae Bareli hadn’t met for around three years.
Since its win in Amethi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has been eyeing Rae Bareli where its political clout has been growing.
Only a couple of days back, rebel Congress lawmaker Aditi Singh from Rae Bareli (Sadar) assembly segment joined the BJP and expressed her faith in the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Five assembly segments make up Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat. The Congress could win just two of these assembly seats in the 2017 UP assembly polls. Since then, the MLA from one of them has now joined the BJP and the other Congress MLA from Harchandpur, Rakesh Pratap Singh has been openly praising the BJP leadership. Rakesh’s brother Dinesh Pratap Singh, a former Sonia aide and local MLC, had joined the party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and contested against the Congress chief. Though he lost, Dinesh subsequently played a part in the Congress defeat in the region in the panchayat polls earlier this year. In October, during a visit to Salon, Smriti Irani had said that Rae Bareli had two Lok Sabha MPs.
“One of them is here in front of you and can confidently state knowledge of each and every problem you face but what about your other MP?” she had asked. Before that she had said, “Amethi, BJP would take Rae Bareli too, if harassment of BJP workers continued.”
“Since becoming Amethi MP, Smriti has missed no opportunity to connect with those areas of Rae Bareli that are part of Amethi,” a party leader admitted and said that BJP was developing constituencies where it had lost.
Congress spokesman Zishan Haider on Saturday said, “As a political party, our leaders have always maintained a certain dignity. They have never stooped to a level that is being displayed these days. Our leaders are beyond such petty politics. The Congress has been in power for decades and will again return to power by the blessings of the people. As for a government panel praising Prime Minister, well, that isn’t surprising anymore.”
Earlier in the day, Smriti Irani inaugurated the ESI dispensary and branch office at Pragati Puram, Rae Bareli, a move that is expected to benefit 60,000 ESI beneficiaries of Rae Bareli.
“This dispensary will help many get better facilities,” she said adding that several workers would also be able to get cash benefits from the ESIC branch office that so far was operating from a rented building since 1978. The new 933 square metre ESI campus has been built at a cost of Rs. 2.27 crore.
Union minister of state for labour and employment and petroleum and natural gas Rameshwar Teli and Rae Bareli municipality chairperson Purnima Shrivastava were also present.
Irani also handed over monthly pension approval letters to the beneficiaries under the ‘Covid-19 Relief Scheme’, a measure by ESIC towards strengthening financial condition of the families affected by the pandemic.
Teli said that through the Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana, if an insured person loses job, they are eligible for relief of 50% of the average daily earnings during the last four contribution periods. “The largest share of workers is of unorganised workers and for the first time under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a National Database has been prepared for the unorganized workers,” Teli said while appealing to people to get registered on the ‘e-shram’ portal at the earliest. One gets an insurance cover of ₹2 lakh after registration and around 9.5 crore people have been registered on this portal so far. ESI is operational in 41 districts of UP.
