Mayawati kicks off election campaign with a huge meeting

Jaipur, Feb 17 (UNI) Bahujan Samaj Party national president and UP Chief Minister Mayawati today officially kicked off her party's election campaign for the ensuing assembly election in the state here with the promise of extending the present National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme round the year instead of 100 days.

Addressing the Sarwa Samaj Bhaichara Banao maharally at Vidhaydhar Nagar about 20 km from the the state capital here , she dealt at length on the pro-poor policies initiated by the BSP government in UP and asked people to support the BSP to extend the policies at the national level by bringing her party to power in Rajasthan.

She said the present NREGS is a farce as only one member of a family is assured of 100 days job at present which is highly inadeqaute and wanted the scheme to be made a year long programme .

She promised like UP her party would give on lease the unutilised government land for farming to the poor farmers. She said 20 lakh acres of land has been leased out to farmers at the rate of three acres per farmer in Uttar Pradesh till now. She promised the same scheme in Rajasthan.

Ms Mayawati also promised reservation in the private sector on the lines of Uttar Pradesh at the rate of 10 per cent reservation each for SC/ST, OBC and poor among the upper castes. ''Even when the government privatises some government owned enterprises it will ensure that the reservation formula existing in the PSU is not disturbed'', she said. She also favoured reservation to the Gujjars under Scheduled Tribes in Rajasthan on condition that a certain additional percentage of reservation be earmarked for the Gujjars over and above the present ST quota.

The meeting was addressed by BSP general secretary Satish Mishra who asked the Upper Castes to support and work for the BSP in a big way as the party stands for the poor of all sections of the people irrespective of caste and religion.

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