Lucknow, Fingers are now being pointed at former chief minister Mayawati and her favourite babu Shashank Shekhar Singh for the role they might have played in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. And the basis for this is a government order issued by Mayawati herself on May 31, 2007, 18 days after becoming chief minister. Although the BSP on Wednesday denied any role of its supremo in the NRHM scam, the government order, which is in possession of TOI, states that files related to policy decisions will be sent to the chief minister for approval and all other remaining proposals will be approved by the cabinet secretary. This makes it virtually impossible for the two to wash their hands of what happened in the NRHM scam, because all files would finally have been cleared by Singh and some policy related matter would have required Maya's approval. The order was very clear on how the system would operate. A file related to a particular matter was to be sent from the chief minister's office to the office of the principal secretary of the department concerned. The principal secretary was then supposed to forward the files to the secretary of his/her department. After ...
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Lucknow, The UP government on Friday scrapped former CM Mayawati's projects for Dalits and those named after their icons. The money allocated for such projects would be diverted to fulfill poll promises like Rs 1,000 monthly allowance for unemployed youth, pension to farmers above 65 besides laptops and PC tablets for students. Sources said the attempt was to ensure that welfare schemes benefit every section of the society and not just Dalits. The Friday's move would affect 26 schemes being handled by 13 departments involving Rs 4,861.72 crore. Most of this money was utilized for maintaining parks and memorials built in the memory of Dalit icons and scholarship programmes for Dalit students besides those launched in the name of BSP founder, Kanshiram. But the government clarified that work that had already started like in the case of Kanshiram Awas Yojana will not be stopped. But such projects will not be renewed. The government also stopped reservation of government contracts for SC/ST bidders that Maya introduced in June 2009, saying it was affecting the quality of work and a more competitive bidding process would benefit the state. The decisions were cleared at ...
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Lucknow, The Samajwadi Party government on Thursday withdrew over 450 homeguards deployed for the security of various memorials and parks built in the city the name of dalit icons by previous chief minister Mayawati. An inquiry has also been ordered to find out under what circumstances the previous regime had decided to demolish the Parikalp Nagar residential colony meant for irrigation department engineers. The colony was demolished for expansion of the eco-garden project which was later merged with Budh Vihar Shanti Upvan. Minister for homeguards and vocational education, Brahma Shankar Tripathi told journalists, "The homeguards deployed for the security of memorials, statues and parks have been withdrawn with immediate effect." He said that these homeguards were deployed in addition to the Suraksha Vahini raised especially for the security of these projects. "As there is a dedicated force for the security of memorials, there is no need to deploy home guards. They can be used for other tasks as per the requirement," he added. The minister further said that the homeguards were posted at dalit memorials for the past three years. "Their deployment was causing unnecessary ...
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Lucknow, Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati Tuesday filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha. BSP leader Munqad Ali also filed the nomination along with her. With 80 seats in the 403-member assembly, BSP members can be elected on two seats in the upper house. Elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from the state will be held on March 30. ...
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New Delhi, Addressing the media for the first time after her defeat in the UP polls, BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday said that her government did bring about significant changes in the state. "The Uttar Pradesh was in bad shape when I took over as the CM of the state," Mayawati said. The Congress-led UPA government did not help the UP government, Mayawati said Analyising her defeat in the state polls, Mayawati said that fearing the return of the BJP, Muslims voted in overwhelming numbers for Samajwadi party. Mayawati also blamed Congress party for playing Muslim quota politics in the state. The BSP chief also expressed hope that her party would return to power in next assembly elections. "The people of the state would get fed up with the bad governance of the upcoming SP government and they would vote her back to power," she said. Earlier, Mayawati on Wednesday tendered her resignation to governor B L Joshi after facing a rout in the assembly elections. Mayawati's BSP faced a rout in the assembly elections managing to win only 80 seats. Her party had won 206 seats in the 2007 assembly elections. ...
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Ghaziabad, Going against the wave of the "red cap" party across UP, Ghazibad voted for BSP. Mayawati's partymen were elected from four of the eight constituencies which are part of the Ghaziabad Lok Sabha segment. While the Congress-RLD alliance and SP won two seats each, BJP was completely wiped out on Tuesday from this region bordering the national capital. BSP winning from Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Loni is likely to cause greater worry for the saffron party considering its eroding support base - particularly its loyal baniya and upper caste votes. BJP was rooted out completely in less than three years after people of Ghaziabad had elected its former national president Rajnath Singh to the XIVth LS. Political analysts feel wrong selection of candidates and Singh's lack of interest in local issues were responsible for BJP's big loss from these urbanized blocks. However, there are also theories of Muslims and dalits rallying behind the BSP apprehending BJP could win from these seats. Moreover, Mayawati's move to allot houses to the poor seems to have worked for her party. For the Congress-RLD combine, it was equally bad considering the alliance had high ...
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Lucknow, With barely one day left for declaration of results of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, most of the exit polls are predicting ouster of the BSP government. History reveals that UP has never voted to power a CM for two consecutive terms. If Mayawati is able to pull a win, she would rewrite history. However, none of the exit poll has indicated towards this possibility. Although various exit polls have offered different tallies for different parties, they are unanimous on two points -- single-largest party status for SP and sharp decline in the number of seats likely to be won by the BSP. This way, Mayawati would be unsuccessful in repeating the feat of some of her contemporaries who have bucked the anti-incumbency factor. All the chief ministers who have enjoyed a second term in office in the past 15 years had solid reasons for being voted back to power. In Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh came back to power. In Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narendra Modi in Gujarat, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Navin Kumar Patnaik in Odisha, Sheila Dixit in Delhi and Tarun Gogoi in Assam have enjoyed two consecutive CM terms. Each had at least one trait that worked to their advantage. Most of ...
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Luckmow, A day after Kanpur administration lodged an FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for violating the model code of conduct, Union telecom minister Kapil Sibal accused CM Mayawati of patronizing politicians with criminal antecedents. "Mayawati came to power promising to put criminals behind bars. However , since she became CM, her government has quietly been withdrawing criminal cases against her party MLAs and MPs with of kidnapping, rape and murder. It started in May 2007 when she was sworn in as CM and is still on," Sibal told reporters. The Bahujan Samaj Party rubbished Sibal's allegations and said it was the only party that acted against legislators found guilty of wrongdoing. To prove his point, Sibal presented a list of nine cases that included BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya. "The state government wants to withdraw a case against Maurya where he is charged with attempt to murder," said Sibal. He added that when a Rae Bareli lower court rejected the application , the state government moved to the district judge's court that directed the court to re-consider the case. The case was filed by head constable Ram Surat Upadhayay in 1987 posted in the ...
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Varanasi, A feisty Mayawati gave it back to Rahul Gandhi word for word at a poll rally more than 80,000 people attended here on Friday. She saw in the Congress general secretary's aggressive campaign to win UP a "conspiracy to pave the way for FDI in retail". Rahul, she said, asks "aapko gussa nahin ataa? (Don't you get angry?). Truth is the Congress first introduces poverty in UP, then its prince starts calling our people beggars. Then, he plays sympathizer." The Congress, the CM said, ruled UP for 40 years and because of the party's wrong policies the young and jobless of the state were forced to go elsewhere in search of a livelihood. "If you commit the blunder of bringing in a Congress government here, the party would handover all your businesses and industries to foreign companies," she warned. Speaking her mind on minority quotas, the chief minister said: "Without amending the Constitution to increase reservations from 50%, creating a 4.5% quota provision for the minority within the 27% quota of OBCs will lead to adverse effects." The Congress, Mayawati said, was trying to create differences between OBCs and minority." Sushma sees the same ghost Was BJP's ...
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Allahabad, BSP supremo Mayawati blamed the Congress's faulty policies for the poverty and unemployment in the state. She said that Congress ruled the state for as many as 40 years after independence and is thus responsible for widespread poverty, which also led to migration of people to other states for livelihood. She was addressing a gathering at the Parade Grounds on Thursday. She asserted that the state treaded on the path of development since the BSP government assumed the reins of power with full majority in 2007 and followed the policy of 'Sarva Jan Hitaya, Sarva Jan Sukhaye'. The government has cared for the interests of all sections of the society despite resource crunch. She, however, blamed the Centre for creating hurdles in the development of the State. She accused the UPA government for not sanctioning the amount of Rs 80,000 crore as economic package for the development of Bundelkhand region. She also stressed that her government has send proposal of Rs 36,000 for the development of the Poorvaanchal region but the Centre did not released the amount. She held Congress government responsible for rising inflation rates that has affected the poor and middle ...
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Lucknow, Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Monday claimed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has confirmed that several of the ministers in her government were involved in corrupt activities. "The Uttar Pradesh Government and its chief has confirmed and accepted that more than half the legislators and Ministers of the ruling BSP Party were corrupt, useless and they have looted the state exchequer," he told the media here. Jaiswal alleged that the funds meant for the development schemes, especially the central schemes, were siphoned off and misappropriated. "In Uttar Pradesh, the funds meant for the development schemes, especially the central schemes were siphoned off and misappropriated by the government," he added. Jaiswal further claimed that the ruling Congress Party would form the government on its own in Uttar Pradesh after the assembly elections. "We are not in talks with any political party neither we will do it. We will not ally with any other political party because we are going to get absolute majority to form the government in Uttar Pradesh," he added. The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are seen ...
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Ballia, Accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of ill governance, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that the former has failed to develop the state and would not be able to do so in the future. Addressing a gathering here, Gandhi asked: "Have you ever seen Mayawati visiting any village in the state in the last five years? Has she ever sat with a family in the village and dined with them? She has never connected with the people in the state." "Have you seen her drinking the same water that you intake in your village? How does she plan to develop the state without being connected with its people? She has developed magical elephant in Lucknow that eats public money," Gandhi said. He also accused the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of keeping mum on the entire reservation issue. "Have any previous chief ministers in the state spoken openly or done anything about reservation? When Mulayam Singh Yadav got to know that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is about to talk on reservation, he chose to remain silent. Even he did the same when mediapersons asked him to say on the same issue (reservation)," said Gandhi. Gandhi further urged the people ...
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Lucknow, Statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati are being draped across the state along with those of elephant, her party symbol, from Sunday following the orders of the Election Commission of India ahead of the assembly polls next month. As part of the model code of conduct, the EC on Saturday ordered to cover all statues of chief minister Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) symbol elephant across the state. "Except for Mahatma Gandhi, all photos of political leaders will be removed. There must be a level playing ground. Partiality will lead to severe consequences," said Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi. He said all statues related to any political leader and party, including Mayawati and the ruling BSP, will be veiled as per election code. In October, Mayawati inaugurated at Noida by the banks of Jamuna the massive Ambedkar park or the Dalit Prerna Sthal, a showpiece project that cost nearly Rs 685 crore to build over 33 acres of land. The park hosts 12 life size statues of Baba Ambedkar and late Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Mayawati's mentor Kanshi Ram, besides those of the chief minister herself. A total of 24 pink sandstone ...
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Lucknow, Authorities in Lucknow today started covering the statues and elephants erected at different parks and memorials after the Election Commission had ordered to cover all the statues and election symbols of various political parties in Uttar Pradesh. Nirman Nigam started the work to cover up these statues and elephants, the election symbol of ruling BSP, this morning but later the authorities decided that it will be done by the Lucknow Development Authority(LDA). Now the work has been stopped after covering some of the elephants at B R Ambedkar memorial in Gomti Nagar and from tomorrow LDA will start its work. Sources here today said now all the confusion regarding who will do the work to cover these statues and elephants have been sorted out and from tomorrow the EC's directives would be enforced. BSP has already protested against the act of the EC on covering up the statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and Kanshiram and elephants, the election symbol of the party. Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi yesterday ordered in Lucknow that all the statues of political parties, including those of Ms Mayawati, Kanshiram and elephants erected in the parks and ...
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LUCKNOW: An attempt to drag chief minister Mayawati to the Lokayukta court for allegedly granting undue favours to liquor baron Ponty Chadha fell flat on Thursday when UP's Lokayukta, Justice NK Mehrotra, declined to entertain the complaint on the grounds that the law does not authorize him to investigate the CM. The complaint against Mayawati was filed by a journalist. Mehrotra also said since Mayawati does not hold the charge of excise ministry, she cannot be questioned for any policy decision. He also refused to take cognizance of allegations against excise minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui for technical reasons. The complaint, he said, was not accompanied with necessary documents. Complainant VK Mishra said he will approach the Lokayukta afresh, "this time with all the necessary documents". The UP excise policy, he charged, was tailored to favour monopolistic trade. "The rule book was thrown to the wind. No tenders were floated and the entire sector was handed over to Chadha on a platter," he alleged. This is the second time a complaint against Chadha has reached Lokayukta. In October 2010, a farmer leader from Lakhimpur Khiri, VM Singh, had alleged that UP State Sugar ...
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Lucknow, In a clean-up move ahead of assembly polls in the state, Chief Minister Mayawati Sunday recommended removal of four ministers facing probes on corruption charges. The ministers removed by Mayawati included Higher Education Minister Rakeshdhar Tripathi, Agriculture Education and Research Minister Rajpal Tyagi, Minister of State (independent charge) of Backwards Welfare Awadesh Kumar Verma and Minister of State for Home Guards Hari Om. Official sources said the chief minister sent her recommendation to remove the four ministers to Governor B.L. Joshi. They said that the chief minister has also reallocated portfolios of the ministers who had been removed. The move is being seen as an effort by the chief minister to improve image of her government ahead of assembly polls in the state in Februray next year. The Election Commission had Saturday announced election schedule for Uttar Pradesh. At least four of Mayawati's important ministers and nearly half a dozen of her party MPs or legislators have been axed over the past few months following charges including corruption and misuse of funds. ...
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New Delhi, The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday returned the Uttar Pradesh government's proposal of dividing it into four independent states. The MHA asked the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government to explain the plans behind dividing the state. It asked the state government to explain certain queries related to state boundaries, debt burden for division, distribution of cadre, etc. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mayawati said on Tuesday that the central government is delaying the division of Uttar Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo said that the letter sent to them by the central government shows that they are not serious about taking the decision on dividing Uttar Pradesh. "By seeing the letter, we feel that the government is trying to delaying the proposal," Mayawati said. She said: “We will give clarifications to each query that has been sent to us by the Centre." Earlier in November, Mayawati suggested breaking up Uttar Pradesh into smaller states for development and better administration. Mayawati proposed four different parts of the state. The four parts will be named Poorvanchal (East UP), Paschhimanchal (West UP), Bundelkhand and ...
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