Mayawati accuses Centre of not sanctioning financial aid

Lucknow, Nov. 27 (ANI): Accusing the Centre of not sanctioning the amount asked for developmental work in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday hit back at Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi saying that he was indulging in theatrics ignoring everything happening in Delhi.

Addressing a massive rally here, Mayawati said that the state government had asked for Rs. 80,000 crore from the Centre as financial aid, but nothing has been done so far and because of which the developmental work and projects of public interest have been affected.

"We have asked for Rs. 80,000 crore as financial aid from the Central Government and that has not been sanctioned by the Central Government. Not only this but the financial aid that been provisioned under the constitutional system is yet to be delivered on time and today also millions of money are pending with the federal government for which the other developmental work and projects of public interest have been affected," said Mayawati.

"The Congress party having found a weak and pitiable plight in the state and is so much afraid that that the leaders and even the general secretary of Congress party are forced to come to the state with his theatrics ignoring everything happening in Delhi," she added.

She also blamed the Congress of trying to project the NREGA scheme as its own scheme.

"Congress Party talks about the Central Government's scheme MNREGA as if the project is owned by the Congress Party itself," she said.

Mayawati further said that effective measures have always been taken in order to make the state transparent and efficient.

"And more so, some office bearers and leaders of Congress party are trying to malign the execution of MNREGA scheme in the state, whereas the state government has made extreme effort to execute the scheme in its best way and to prevent any irregularities, it has created a very efficient and transparent system," said Mayawati.

"Under this system, if any officer or any employee of the government is found involved any kind of irregularity then immediate steps would be against that person," she added.

Rahul Gandhi had earlier accused Mayawati of shunning Central Government schemes that aimed at improving the lot of the poor, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), which provides poor people 100 days of work a year, in spite of its success in may Indian states.

"We spoke about bringing the MNREGA to Uttar Pradesh. What did your chief minister say? She said that MNREGA would not benefit anyone," he a rally in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday.

Mayawati said that the opposition party are scared of defeat in polls.

"The opposition parties are having sleepless nights and as assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh are near, all these opposition parties don't have any other affair than criticising BSP," she said.

Mayawati"s victory in the 2007 assembly elections was hailed as a victory of social engineering, where high caste Hindu voters, the lower "Dalit" castes and Muslims were brought together to vote for her party, giving her a single-party majority.

Over the last two years, however, she has faced criticism for her extravagant birthday celebrations and for building parks with colossal statues of Dalit icons and leaders. The parks also boast of statues of Mayawati herself.

The elections in Uttar Pradesh are scheduled in the early part of 2012. (ANI)