UP accords metro status to six cities

Lucknow, Oct 19 (UNI) Ignoring the possibility of another political controversy amidst urban local bodies elections, the Uttar Pradesh government today decided to accord Metro status to six cities of the state.

The cities to get the new status are Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi and Allahabad.

However, there would be no administrative changes in these cities nor there would be any hike of taxes for the residents, though the decision would benefit the government and non-government employees as their city compensatory allowance and house rent allowance would be enhanced.

The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav here this evening.

The decision is likely to create controversy with opposition parties making it an issue of violation of model code of conduct during the urban local bodies poll.

According to a senior official, there is a provision under Article 243(P) and 243(ZE) of the constitution giving power to the state government to accord metro status to any city who has more than one million population.

Denying that there is any political aspect by this decision, sources said that it was merely done for intregrated and cohesive development.

Earlier in 1995, the state government had declared Lucknow and Kanpur as metro cities, but the decision was not implemented.

Recently, while the state election commission had allowed the CM to hold functions of cheque distribution of unemployment allowance and Kanya Vidyadhan in rural areas and avoid urban areas, Governor T V Rajeswar had objected to holding of such programmes even in rural areas.

The Raj Bhawan had dashed off a letter to the SEC asking it to restrain the CM from holding of such programmes.

On October 11, when the State Election Commissioner Aparmita Prasad Singh had met the Governor, the matter of cheque distribution was discussed. The SEC had assured that such programmes would be organised outside the municipal limits.

But the Governor thought that despite holding such programmes outside urban areas, it would be impossible to know about the beneficiaries -- whether they live in rural or urban areas.

''Therefore, in a bid to check any possible complaints and to ensure a free and fair poll, the Raj Bhawan asked the SEC to restrain the CM or any other political functionary from holding such functions till the polls were over,'' sources explained.

In another decision, the government also decided to hike the Earned Leave accumulation of the employees of the municipal corporations from 180 days to 300 days.

The government has approved a proposal to amend the law of the cooperative department similar to that of revenue department for realisation of loan from the consumers.'' Now the cooperative department would have stringent powers to realise loan amount from the consumers like done by the revenue department'', a source said.

The state cabinet also approved the decision to get a loan of Rs 680 crore from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation(JBIC) for developing the Buddhist circuit while the government has given its nod for gurantee to Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited(UPPCL) to take loan from financial institutions for setting up new power plants in the state.

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