Rahul Gandhi visits drought-hit Aurangabad, assures all help

Aurangabad (PTI): Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday visited the drought-hit Aurangabad district and assured villagers of taking prompt measures to tackle water and fodder scarcity. "The problems of water and fodder supply in drought-hit areas would be taken up on a war footing," Gandhi said while interacting with farmers and labourers in the drought-hit villages of Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

His visit came two days after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced Rs 10 crore funds as drought relief in the district. In order to prevent the usurping of relief being given to people, the Aadhaar card scheme had been implemented, he said. Soon after Gandhi landed here, he went to Phulambri tehsil, where he interacted with villagers at Nidhona. Benefits of various schemes were not reaching the "last man" but with Aadhar, it is now possible, he said. Gandhi also inspected the job cards given to labourers. At Nidhona, he called a small boy and putting his hand over his shoulders, enquired about the situation in his area. In Pimpal village, which was not on the agenda of the visit, he accompanied a villager as a pillion rider and took a round of the area. Rahul inspected the work being carried out under MNREGA at Nidhona. He talked to workers grappling with severe scarcity of water. Several villagers complained to him about lack of water and good roads in the tehsil. Chavan, who was with Rahul, assured the villagers that adequate facilities would be soon provided to the villages in the tehsil and informed them of the various schemes of the government.