Akola : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi tried to find common ground with rural students pursuing agriculture at the Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth here on Tuesday.

He spent over an hour interacting with the students after delivering a brief address, where he stressed on building rural infrastructure and effective rural development to check migration from villages to cities.

Rahul started his three-stop whirlwind tour of Maharashtra targeting college students from various backgrounds here. He specially interacted with students from the rural and agrarian background at the agriculture university. The media as well politicians, irrespective of seniority, were kept away from the auditorium as Rahul wanted it to be a totally non-political learning process. He landed at Shivani airport three-and-a-half-hour behind schedule at 11.20am and left for Aurangabad at 12.30pm by a special flight.

He lamented that funds from the Centre did not percolate down to villages and were lost in the corrupt system. Rahul stressed that only better utilisation of available funds could make a difference and strengthen rural India in the true sense.

"It is sad that only around 10% of the funds meant for villages actually reach there. Only rural development and better rural infrastructure can stop urban migration to some extent," he said. He also stressed on replacing the current top-down system of development to a more grassroots oriented one.

"No doubt, this migration process cannot be stopped as it is essentially linked to people's aspirations and dreams that are connected with big cities and metros. But, if better conditions are provided in villages, the migration could be checked," he added.

Among the questions he took from students, a significant one was on farmers' suicides. "It is very unfortunate that farmers take such a tragic course," he said. "But I am told that the number of such cases is coming down drastically," he noted. "I am aware that such farm suicides have not stopped, but measures taken by the government are bearing fruit and I hope it would succeed fully," he said.

"He connected directly with the youth and spoke about the role of younger people in shaping the destiny of the country's polices and growth," said Dr AR Patil, associate dean PDKV, who was among the over 100 staff members and 400 select students allowed inside KR Thakre Auditorium after strict security checks. Rahul did not forget to mention that the students can participate in politics by joining the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the Congress.