May 11: Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who visited Amethi on Tuesday with AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday.
After Amethi, Mr Gates will visit Bihar on Wednesday, where he will attend functions organised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On Tuesday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took Mr Gates on a whirlwind tour of Amethi and Rae Bareli to give him a glimpse of development work in the two areas. The two arrived at the Indira Gandhi Flying Academy in Fursatganj in a special aircraft Tuesday morning and drove straight to Bahadurpur village at Jais in Rae Bareli. They visited the Rajiv Gandhi Women’s Training Centre and interacted with 300 women associated with self-help groups formed at the initiative of Mr Rahul Gandhi.
Mr Gates explained the importance of computer education and promised to help develop Amethi and Rae Bareli as an information technology hub.
The two visited the bank branch at Gauriganj where local women maintain acco-unts, and then an eye hospital at Munshiganj. They had lunch at the Munshiganj guest house and then visited an eye camp in Shahgarh block, with halts at some villages on the way.
The visit by the two was wrapped in secrecy and most Uttar Pradesh Congre-ss leaders were not infor-med about it. The media too was kept at a distance not given access to the VIPs.