Rahul will visit Vidarbha June end

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi

June 4: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will resume his countrywide tour towards the end of June, his first stop expected to be the drought-hit areas of Maharashtra.

Mr Gandhi, who kicked off the tour in March 2008 with a visit to Orissa, will go to areas in the Vidarbha region, which has been in news for continuous farmers’ suicides.

If the party insiders are to be believed, the Amethi MP will focus on farmers during his visit to the state. The visit assumes significance in the wake of the alterations in the farm loan-waiver scheme, in line with the suggestions made by Mr Gandhi to enhance the area-limit to avail of the concession.

It was being said that the scheme would not benefit the farmers in Vidarbha, who have larger land holdings, but have been reeling under drought-like conditions and lack of irrigation facilities.

Bihar, Jharkhand and the Northeastern states are also among the places that Mr Gandhi would be visiting shortly, an agency report said quoting unidentified sources. He is expected to visit some areas in Uttar Pradesh also.

Mr Gandhi last visited Karnataka prior to the Assembly polls in the state. In April, he toured the tribal-dominated states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, apparently with an eye on the Assembly elections to be held there later in 2008.

The countrywide tour, that was earlier projected as an effort to connect with the youth and attract them towards the Congress, has undergone a shift to focus more on tribal communities.

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Iran hope after Pak: Hurriyat

By Our Special Correspondent

Srinagar

June 4: Terming Iran the second only hope after Pakistan for the oppressed Muslim of the world, a Hurriyat Conference leader asked the alliance faction on Wednesday to open an office in Tehran to effectively reach out the people of the Islamic country and neighbouring nations.

The suggestion made by Mr Naeem Ahmed Khan, leader of separatist Jammu & Kashmir National Front, evoked applause from the audience gathered at the amalgam faction headquarters here for a seminar held to commemorate the 19th death anniversary of Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The JKNF is a constituent of the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference faction.