UP MLAs misuse area development funds

Though outburst from different quarters forced Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to roll back his offer to the MLAs to buy a vehicle from their area development funds, the fact is, legislators continue to spend the money for their own “development.”

MLAs of both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have allegedly allotted huge amount of money from their area development funds to organisations controlled either by themselves or their kith and kin, during the Mayawati regime.

State Lokayukta justice (retd) N K Mehrotra had indicted several legislators and ministers in the Mayawati government for misuse of their area development funds. Several ministers were sacked as well.

It turned out that educational institutions, controlled by the MLAs, were the most convenient channels to divert the area development funds. MLAs would donate huge amount of money to a school or a college for adding a class or two or setting up a laboratory.

Ratanlal Ahirwar, Anees Ahmed Khan, Fateh Bahadur Singh and Rajesh Tripathi, all ministers in the Mayawati government, were charged with misusing the development fund.