Mayawati accuses Centre of depriving UP of funds

Aligarh, Feb 21: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today accused the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre of "starving the state of much needed central funds" for different development projects.

Addressing an election rally at the Exhibition Grounds here, Mayawati said had the centre conceded to the state government's repeated pleas for funds, the state of UP would have been marching ahead in different fields.

Refuting the allegation of corruption against her party's government in Uttar Pradesh, the Chief Minister said, "in the last Assembly elections, a number of infiltrators had managed to sneak into our party and get elected."

"Some of them became ministers. When we detected their wrong doings we immediately removed them from their respective posts", she said.

Taking a dig at the Bhartiya Janata Party, Mayawati said, "When we removed certain corrupt elements from our party, other parties who championed the cause of honesty accepted them with open arms".

Mayawati said, "the Bhartiya Janata Party has no moral right to speak of corruption after the track record of their party's government in Karnataka has come before the country. The track record of the NDA government which ruled in the centre for about seven years also reflects the BJP's fickle commitment to the cause of fighting corruption", she said.

Hitting out at the UPA government, the Chief Minister said, "the UPA government's numerous scandals just in the past three years should expose the true face of the Congress Party on the issue of corruption."

Referring to the reservation issue and the Congress Party's "ambivalent stand" on the matter, the Chief Minister said, "by indiscriminately adding other groups to the OBC list, the Congress Party is depriving the existing beneficiaries in the quota list".

The Chief Minister said, "By promising 9 per cent reservation to Muslims in government jobs, the Congress Party is trying to trick both the Muslims and the other OBC groups who are already in the quota ambit".

Referring to the slow pace of development in some sectors in the state, she said, "Our target is to provide 24-hour electricity per day if we are given further chance to serve the state and if the Centre cooperates with us".

She said that the Centre had been very stingy in releasing funds for the state and "whatever development has taken place in UP during the past five years has been achieved with our own meagre resources and in some cases with the help of private sector".

The Chief Minister said that the state has done more for farmers during the past five years than had ever been done by governments who claimed to champion the cause of the farmers.

She cited the example of "doubling of the minimum purchase price for sugarcane in the state" during her tenure.

The Chief Minister said that her party was determined to maintain communal peace and harmony in the state. This was reflected by the manner in which her government succeeded in maintaining peace in Uttar Pradesh in the aftermath of the declaration of the High Court case on the explosive Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi Issue.

PTI