'Coalition politics delaying land bill'

While he cited coalition compulsions for the delay in the passage of the land acquisition bill, the young MP asserted that the UPA government had acted hard on corruption.

“Land acquisition is a problem that exists in several states…Nymagiri in Orissa, Andhra and Bengal though in UP its happening on a huge scale,” Rahul said during an interaction with the farmers at Ghagholi in Aligarh district on Friday.

Although Rahul did not name anyone, he clearly indicated towards the objections raised by the UPA ally Trinamool Congress on the Bill.

“We are running a coalition government…we have to talk to our partners…we prepare a bill and Bengal says its not good,” he said.

When confronted with questions on corruption, the Congress leader said the government had taken action against the guilty. “Many ministers were sent to jail,” he said in response to a query by a villager.

Taking a dig at the Mayawati regime, Rahul compared land acquisitions in Uttar Pradesh to robberies. “Robberies take place at night but in UP they are taking place in the day,” he said.

The Congress MP said he had learnt a lot from the “yatra”. “I could not have learnt these things while sitting in New Delhi,” he told villagers.Rahul had embarked upon his “yatra” on Tuesday last from Bhatta-Parsaul in Greater Noida and visited several villages during the past four days while spending nights at villages .

The Congress would be holding a “kisan mahapanchayat” at Aligarh town on Saturday and the “yatra” was aimed at galvanising the farmers to join the meeting in good numbers.