Rahul Gandhi spreading 'falsehood' on food park: Government

NEW DELHI: On a day Rahul Gandhi visited Amethi to rake up the food park issue, government accused him of spreading "falsehood" and playing a "mega fraud" on the people, insisting that promoters of the project were pursuing a power plant in the name of food park.

Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur, who has already countered the allegations of the Congress Vice President, said the decision to deny any further extension to project was taken in March last year when UPA was in power and asked Gandhi to do his "homework".

"Neither Rahul nor his party was serious to set up the food park... Rahul is spreading falsehood," she told reporters here and questioned where the Congress leader was all the while since the project was cancelled in July last year.

"When I saw the file, it was shocking to note that in the name of mega food park, they were spreading mega lies. If you see their proposed revenue model, after getting cheap gas, they proposed to earn 62 per cent revenue from power generation," she said.

She spoke to the media while Gandhi was touring Amethi, his Lok Sabha constituency, alleging that the Modi government had cancelled the project because of "politics of revenge" and therefore hit the farmers badly.

Kaur said food processing, which was projected as the purpose for setting up of the unit, was given only a fraction of revenue in the proposal.

Citing documents, she alleged that the permission to Shaktiman Mega Foodpark for setting up of the unit at Amethi was done in "haphazard manner".

"The show-cause notice to the promoter asking why the allocation of food park should not be canceled was sent during the UPA regime in 2012," she said adding as per the 2010 permission, the project was to be set up within 24 months. "But, nothing was done," she said.