Bhopal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who is also an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, on Saturday, 17 September, said that people in some areas of the villages she has adopted are forced to sell their daughters to free those caught selling illicit liquor for a living, reported The Indian Express.
Thakur had adopted the Khajuri Kalan village in Sehore district, and the Bangrasiya village in Bhopal’s Huzur, under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
While speaking at an event organised by the traders’ organisation, Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, in Madhya Pradesh, Thakur said that people from some parts of the villages she has adopted have no means of education, or livelihood.
“There are some settlements in the village that I have adopted, where people have neither the means of education nor their parents have any source of livelihood. They make illicit liquor and sell it,” Thakur said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
“When they are caught by the police and do not have any money to bail out their people, they sell off their innocent daughters and use that money to free their people," she added.
She also expressed her gratitude towards the organisation for donating colour books and pencils for the children of the adopted villages.
“The situation is so bad there that they do not have any money to even buy food. I have adopted three such villages where there are about 250-300 children and have started work for them,” Thakur said.
'BJP MP Showing Truth About 18 Years of Work': Congress
In the view of Thakur's statement, Sangeeta Sharma, vice-president of the Congress’s media cell, targeted the BJP saying, “The BJP MP is herself showing the truth about the 18 years of work done by the party and the claims made by them. She has shown the reality of the government’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign," reported The Indian Express.
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