JAIPUR, June 23 (UNI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi today toured Tonk district of Rajasthan where five persons were killed in police firing on farmers agitating for water last week.
She met relatives of the victi at Bawadi, Jhirana and Sohela and eight of the injured admitted to hospital in Tonk.
According to party sources here, she also distributed an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh each to the next of kin of the five persons killed in the June 13 incident.
In a brief interaction with reporters before returning to Delhi, the Congress President flayed the "police brutality" on villagers and described the incident as a failure on the part of the state's BJP government.
Any proposal from the state government for mitigating the water crisis in the region would be "considered" by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, she said.
Gandhi's visit to Tonk came even as the Opposition Congress and Left parties have attacked the BJP government for the firing incident and its record on the law and order front.
In memoranda addressed to the Governor, the Congress, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML) have demanded dismissal of the BJP government.
Faced with mounting criticism of its handling of the farmer's agitation, the state government had shifted the District Collector and Superintendent of Police and announced an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh each to the next of kin of those killed.
Alleging that the Congress was "playing politics over dead bodies", hundreds of BJP workers led by MLAs Kalicharan Sarraf, Biru Singh Rathore and Ramlal Sharma courted arrest near the airport here today against Gandhi's visit.
Police said they were taken into custody as they marched towards the airport.
