By IANS,
Amethi : British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Wednesday visited Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency Amethi with the Congress MP to see how the poor benefit from development schemes, but tight security kept the media at a safe distance.
Gandhi and a 15-member British delegation led by Miliband reached the Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow and drove down to Amethi, about 80 km away, on a two-day trip.
Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told IANS that Gandhi and Miliband went to half a dozen mud and brick villages. Reporters crowding Amethi saw them whiz past in a convoy but could not talk to them throughout the day.
Gandhi inspected self-help groups and healthcare schemes introduced by him some time ago, especially for women, Akhilesh Singh said.
Miliband and Gandhi interacted with some women in the self-help groups, according to a party member accompanying them.
At a recent meeting with the Congress general secretary, Miliband had expressed a desire to see developmental activities in rural India. Gandhi promptly invited him to his constituency.
Gandhi and Miliband are also to visit the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital for secondary and tertiary care and the Indira Gandhi Eye Hospital in Amethi.
The Sanjay Gandhi hospital is named after the Congress general secretary’s uncle and the eye hospital after his grandmother.