UP stuck in temple-mosque quagmire: Manmohan

Lakhimpur Kheri/Bahraich, Apr 20: Castigating the non-Congress governments in Uttar Pradesh in the last 15 years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today lamented that the state was stuck in the quagmire of temple-mosque and caste-religion issues which had only resulted in lop-sided development in the state.

''UP could not develop due to vested interests of non-Congress governments and is trailing all other states in several development parameters,'' Mr Singh said while addressing election meetings here.

Urging the electorate to support Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her Amethi MP son Rahul Gandhi, he exhorted them for renewing the bond with the party.

''Temple-mosque slogans do not feed the hungry, it only harms the society. Blood was shed in its name. Politics of religion was played, aimed at dividing the society...this thing is still on,'' he warned.

Mr Singh reminded that UP produced several PMs in post-independent India such as Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

''These leaders made all efforts for speedy development in the biggest state of the country,'' he added.

Dr Singh claimed that people were better off in states ruled by Congress. ''Only Congress is a people-oriented party, which treats the masses on an equal footing. UP figured high on the development tally after independence and subsequent Congress governments worked hard to maintain its position...sadly, the non-Congress governments have led to the deterioration of the state.''
Rebutting allegations that the Centre was meting out stepmotherly treatment to UP, Dr Singh charged, ''the UPA regime is committed towards the development of the state. Therefore, development funds worth crores were provided to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. But sadly, the funds were either misutilised or not utilised at all.'' ''As many as 39 districts of UP had been covered under Centre's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREG) but the UP government failed to implement effectively such an ambitious scheme.

Same is the case with other Centrally sponsored new projects in the state,'' he underlined.

The PM said it was the initiative of the Central government to offer a helping hand in the recruitment of 2 lakh teachers in UP but the state government never implemented it properly too.

''Under the Central 15 Point Programme and Bharat Nirman Yojna schemes, a large number of Anganwadi centres, schools, hospitals and employment schemes would be brought for UP. Till 2009, every village will have electricity and safe drinking water,'' he claimed.

He further asserted that sustained efforts were being made by the UPA government to control inflation for which it has decided to import essential commodities.

Fulminating the Samajwadi Party (SP) regime, the Prime Minister alleged ''the urban and rural development has come to a standstill.

Presently, goonda raj prevails and atrocities on women and Dalits are the order of the day.

''Leave women, men too are not saye in Mulayam's regime. UP has become a 'rest house' for criminals. It is painful that the CM is hand-in-glove with them.

''The industrial development of UP is zero. Mr Yadav's regime has posed a major threat to the identity of industrial cities of Kanpur, Moradabad, Agra and Saharanpur. UP today is not what people had dreamt,'' he alleged.

''I urge people to wake up as they have got a great opportunity in the form of ongoing assembly poll. If they want UP on the lines of development, they ought to vote only in favour of Congress. One knows that Congress never makes hollow promises...,'' he said.

UNI