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Rahul kicks off march in Andhra

Hyderabad - 'Congress won't allow Modi to take farmers' land, says party vice-president.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the contentious Land Bill, stating that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was only interested in taking away lands from farmers.
"The Congress has taken a firm stand on the issue, and we will not allow the government to take away farmers' lands so easily. The prime minister has now realised, after the farm sector showed its strength, that he can't push the farmers around," said Gandhi, speaking at a public meeting after launching a 10-km padayatra (march) in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh to highlight the plight of farmers in the country.
The Congress leader, referring to the government's move to amend the Land Bill to give flexibility to States to frame their own laws in a bid to break the impasse in parliament, said: "We have not even shown 10 per cent of the strength of farmers. And the prime minister suddenly seems to have understood that he cannot push the farmers of this country."
"What the prime minister is not saying is that he has told his friends that he would take land away from the farmers. We will not allow him to do that. The Congress has always fought for the farmers, and we will continue to do so," he said, adding that opposition party was not scared of anybody.
Focusing on the issues faced by Andhra Pradesh, Gandhi said Modi was not interested in according special status to the residuary State just as he was not interested in the welfare of farmers. The prime minister is also not interested in the Polavaram Irrigation project which has been declared a national project, he said.
The Congress leader, training his guns on the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an ally of the NDA, and the opposition YSR Congress, said: "The government led by N Chandrababu Naidu has failed to fight for Special Status for the State as also implementation of the Polavaram project. While I can understand the intentions of the prime minister, I wonder why these parties are not fighting for the rights of the State. The Congress is fully committed to granting Special Status to AP as also implementation of the Polavaram project."
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