Mayawati slams Yogi over 'saffronisation' of Shastri Bhavan building

BSP supremo Mayawati slammed the Yogi Adityanath government on Monday, accusing it of wasting resources by changing colours of building and focusing on cow protection instead of important public interest works.

Her remarks comes days after the Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhavan, known as the secretariat annexe building which houses the chief minister's office as well as those of senior officials, was given a saffron coat replacing the traditional white and blue.

"The BJP is busy changing colours of buildings and state buses (to saffron). It has considered it as 'raj dharma' (government job). It is wasting resources and time in useless works and ignoring public interest and welfare works," she charged in a statement here.

Recently, the chief minister had flagged off a fleet of 50 saffron-coloured buses and even the stage for the inauguration was decorated with saffron-coloured curtains and balloons. Besides, the education department had distributed saffron-coloured school bags to primary schools students and the booklets that were distributed to mark 100 days and six months of the Adityanath government were saffron in colour as well.

The information department diary of the state government too bears a saffron cover.

Mayawati said scores of people were losing their lives in hospitals for lack of proper facilities.

The NTPC incident was because of "criminal negligence" of the BJP governments, she charged.

She expressed condolence over demise of a number of people in the NTPC boiler explosion and blamed the "insensitive BJP" for the tragedy. A boiler blast in the NTPC plant in Unchahar in Uttar Pradesh last week left 34 persons dead, making it the country's worst industrial disaster in recent years.

"Due to wrong policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the price of human lives is less than that of animals," Mayawati said.

She also alleged that BJP ministers were trying to "get cheap publicity by giving irresponsible statements". "The present government considers 'Gau Raksha' (cow protection) as its only work ignoring important public interest works," she said.

BJP spokesman Shalabh Mani Tripathi, when contacted, said Mayawati's remarks reflected her "sheer frustration" as she was "discarded" by the people of the state.

"The deeds during her regime as the chief minister is known to all. The BJP is committed to people's welfare and the country is progressing fast under leadership of Narendra Modi and in the state under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath," he said.