Hooda urges Cong workers to participate in 'Jan Akrosh Rally'

Chandigarh: Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged party workers and supporters to participate in large numbers to make the Congress's 'Jan Akrosh Rally' in Delhi a grand success.

The rally is scheduled to be held on Sunday at the national capital's Ramlila Maidan.

Speaking at a meeting to review the arrangements for the rally, he said every Congress worker from Haryana will make all out efforts to make the rally a "grand and historic success". Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called for the rally to protest the "anti-people policies of the BJP government", Hooda said.

"Rahul ji has called for the rally to highlight the problems and miseries of the people of various sections including the poor, Dalits, farmers and the youth and destruction of our constitutional institutions," he said in the meeting organised at his Delhi residence.

Hooda, according to a release issued here today, said as this is the first major rally after Gandhi took over as the Congress president, "we will go all out to make it a grand success". The former chief minister expressed his gratitude to Gandhi for providing him the opportunity to be appointed as chairman of the party's sub-group on agriculture.

"We would ensure that the farmer is debt free, the farmer gets a fair price in line with the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, which would cover the costs of transportation and ensure 50 per cent profit for the farmer," he said.

Speaking about Haryana, Hooda alleged that the present BJP government "has set new records in incompetence and corruption".

"People in the government have snatched 'Dal' from the plates of the poor...The government has gone to unprecedented lows by indulging in scam in the distribution of free medicines and putting a rate list and auctioning jobs,

"Today, everyone in Haryana, the farmer, trader, government employee and the working class, are in deep anguish. The farmer has been hit the hardest as prices of mustard, sugarcane, sunflower, bajra, cotton and several other commodities have crashed," he claimed. Fourteen of the party's 17 sitting MLAs from Haryana, including Kuldeep Bishnoi, were present at the meeting. It was attended by more than a hundred former MP, ministers and MLAs, among others, the release said.