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Sonia tours disease-hit Adilabad district

All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi was given a rousing reception on her arrival at Hyderabad airport this afternoon.

Gandhi flew in on a private chartered plane from New Delhi to meet the tribal families, who were affected by malaria and other water-borne diseases in Adilabad district.

Gandhi's arrival was delayed by more than 90-minutes as she was engaged in a meeting with Palestine president Yasser Arafat at New Delhi.

Though the Andhra Pradesh government was maintaining that only 380 people had died of the diseases in the district, a survey by the APCC claimed that 2272 people had died. A memorandum would be submitted to Gandhi when she visits Narnoor village in the district later in the day, party sources said.

She was received by a select gathering of congressmen, including APCC chief Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, MP, Congress Legislature Party leader P Janardhana Reddy and Congress Working Committee member Lakshmi Devi, at the tarmac.

A glassed replica of the Charminar was also presented to her at the makeshift shamiana put up for the occasion.

During her six-hour tour of the state, Gandhi is slated to address a public meeting at Karimnagar before returning to New Delhi.

UNI

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