NEW DELHI: Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress on Saturday claimed that the double-engine government in Uttar Pradesh is running “dangerously low” on fuel and that the PM must answer key issues of the state before the engine comes to a “sputtering halt on June 4″.Ahead of the prime minister’s rally in Saharanpur, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed three questions to the PM including one on Saharanpur’s wood-carving industry.”Today, PM Modi visits Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, a state where the double-engine sarkar is running dangerously low on fuel. Before the engine comes to a sputtering halt on June 4th, we hope the PM can answer these three questions on why the machinery is breaking down,” Ramesh said on X.Noting that Saharanpur is globally acclaimed for its wood-carving industry and is popularly known as the Wooden City, Ramesh said the industry is more than 200 years old and is crucial to the economic health of the city as it employs more than 7 lakh people.”Unfortunately, the wood-carving industry has been hit hard by successive blunders of the Modi government. First, demonetisation, then GST, and finally, the unplanned pandemic lockdowns have decimated the industry, which has been struggling to recover ever since,” he said.At its peak, it was exporting more than 1,500 crores worth of goods but today, this number has reduced by almost 90 per cent, he claimed.”The ‘double-engine’ sarkar has been found triply guilty in Saharanpur. What does PM Modi have to say to the lakhs of artisans who are suffering because of his blunders? What have the BJP governments at the state and Centre done to support this age-old industry?” he said.
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