Friday, August 19 2005 11:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday (August 18, 2005) charged United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi with making a totally wrong, baseless and mischievous statement in the Lok Sabha that the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had not provided additional stock of food grains under the food-for-work programme to the drought-affected Congress-ruled states.

The party also described National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a 'betrayal of the urban poor.'

"It was not expected of Gandhi to make such a baseless and wrong statement. Her copywriter has made a mischievous statement, which she read out. We had provided free food grains to the Rajasthan Government, then ruled by Congress and even arranged for their transport," BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman, V K Malhotra, told reporters here.

He alleged that both the Congress party's manifesto and the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA had promised to bring about a National Employment Guarantee Scheme.

"The word rural was added later on and is a betrayal of the urban poor. Many unemployed people in the urban areas are committing suicide," he said.

Malhotra said the BJP has moved two major amendments to the Employment Bill, including for making it applicable in both rural and urban areas and one for providing work to all those who seek it as against a single member of the family.