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Bill Gates offers to turn Amethi, Rae Bareli into IT hubs
Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service

THE RICH AND THE FAMOUS: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at an eye-testing camp at Shahgarh block of Amethi on Tuesday. — PTI

Lucknow, May 11
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates today extended an invitation to the US to those who are willing to learn computers. During his visit to Amethi, in the midst of a scorching Indian summer, Gates promised to develop Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s constituency and neighbouring Rae Bareli represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi as IT hubs.

His two-day trip remained a highly guarded secret which even the UP Congress Committee members were not aware of and the media was also not let anywhere near them. After landing at the Fursatganj airstrip in the constituency, Gates accompanied by Gandhi drove to Bahadurpur village in Jais to address a meeting of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojna, a self-help group of women. They also visited a branch of the State Bank of India with which the group is linked.

Explaining the importance of computer education to the women, who were not even aware of the visitor’s international stature, Gates promised to do his best for the development of Amethi and adjoining Rae Bareli.

During the day, the two visited several villages where Gandhi was seen explaining the various development works underway in his constituency. Later, they retired at the Munshiganj Guest House.

It may be recalled that on March 24 Melinda Gates, co-chairperson of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had similarly paid a surprise visit to Bhuli-Ghara-Rampur village in Shivgarh block of Rae Bareli in a bid to understand rural India first hand today.

The husband and wife have set up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is among the world’s largest charitable trusts with assets to the tune of $35 billion.

Last year, Amethi had seen a high profile visitor in the person of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. During the visit, the British minister along with Gandhi had even spent the night at Simara village in Amethi in the dilapidated hut of a Dalit villager Shivkumari Kori, even breaking bread with the family.