RLD member and UP Women Welfare Board chairperson resigns

Lucknow, Jan 12 (UNI) Close on heels of the resignation of three Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ministers and three party chairpersons, UP Women Welfare Board Chairperson Gyanwati Singh today put in her papers.

With this resignation, all the RLD leaders have left their posts of chairpersons of boards or corporations as per the directive of party president Ajit Singh.

UP Export Corporation chairman Ramashraya Verma and Labour Welfare Council chairman Tej Pal Singh -- both accorded minister status -- resigned from their posts yesterday.

Three RLD ministers -- Virendra Singh (animal husbandary) and Kokab Hamid (tourism), both of cabinet rank, and Swami Omvesh (Cane development) -- had quit on January nine.

Irrigation and Flood Commission chairperson Anuradha Chaudhury, who is a Lok Sabha member and enjoyed the rank of cabinet minister, also submitted her resignation on the same day.

The RLD took the step to register its protest over the hike in State Advisory Price (SAP) of sugarcane announced by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the recently-concluded monsoon session of the assembly.

While the RLD had demanded the SAP to be Rs 200 per quintal, the government had hiked it to Rs 122 per quintal.

UNI