Title - Sonia announces several schemes for Rae Bareli

On her first day of her two-day trip to her constituency Rae Bareli, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Thursday sought forgiveness from the people for not being able to come amongst them due to "personal reasons". She also announced a number of schemes.In her address to local people and party workers after laying the foundation stone of the four-laning of the National Highway 28 between Rae Bareli and Lucknow, Gandhi said that she wanted everyone to be prosperous and happy."Zindagi ka silsila nahin rukta hai, nahin desh ke liye kaam karne ka"(Life does not stop, neither does work for the nation)," she said, adding that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had brought out many schemes for the poor and the downtrodden.But the real change, Gandhi underlined, would come when the education sector gets a major impetus. She also announced that a women's degree college would soon be set up in the name of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi at Rae Bareilly.Apart from the four laning of the NH 28 at a cost of Rs.600 crore, the Congress chief also announced a host of other infrastructural projects for her parliamentary constituency including broadening of the railway overbridge at Bachrawan, an overbridge in the city to ease transport and two level crossings at the Kunda bypass.

Gandhi was accompanied by the Union Ministers C.P. Joshi and Jatin Prasad.