UPA adopting step-motherly attitude towards UP: Mayawati

Mayawati's tirade against the Congress-led coalition came barely a fortnight after her party, having 21 MPs, bailed out the UPA by voting with the treasury benches on cut motions in the Lok Sabha. Addressing a press conference to mark the completion of three years of her government, Mayawati said, "Congress-led UPA government's attitude towards the state has been discriminatory in every sphere but we made improvement in all areas including law and order.

"Had the Centre provided the state's full share of Rs 17,000 crore timely, the results of these programmes would have been better," she said adding this had hampered the development works and resulted in additional burden on the government due to rising prices. The chief minister rued that her demand for a special development package of Rs 80,000 crore had been turned down by the central government.

She said the negative attitude adopted by the Centre showed that it was a conspiracy both against the BSP-led government and the people of Uttar Pradesh to keep them backward. Mayawati, who has been asking the Centre to bear the full expenditure incurred in implementation of schemes under the Right to Education Act, said the union government should bear the entire expense of the schemes launched by it under the central and concurrent list.

"The Centre makes schemes after Gandhi and Nehru and forces them on the states," she said. Giving detailed account of the schemes launched by her government during the past three years for the development of the state and welfare of the people, Mayawati said that unlike her predecessors, she did not believe in making tall claims but worked for benefit of the people.

She claimed that her government has improved the power scenario in the state and hoped that by 2014, people would get reprieve from power crisis if there was no interference from the Centre. On the law and order situation, Mayawati said that though there was "jungle raj" before she took over, her government had carried out a drive against criminal elements and also managed to establish a society free of fear, crime, injustice and corruption.

Mayawati took the opportunity to slam the opposition parties making a hue and cry over the expenditure incurred on the construction of parks and memorials named after great men born in different castes including dalit icons like Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj and B R Ambedkar. "The BSP government has followed the path shown by these great men and also started welfare schemes in their names whereas the earlier governments had been most passive towards them because of their casteist mentality," she said.

The chief minister said only one per cent of the state budget had been spent on these memorials whereas the opposition has been trying to misguide the people by making false propaganda on this count. The chief minister on the occasion also released two books titled "Kendriya Sahayta Ka Kadva Sach - Uttar Pradesh Ki Upeksha (the bitter truth of central aid and neglect of Uttar Pradesh)" and "Uttar Pradesh Ki BSP Sarkar Ki Jan Astha Ayam Vishwas Ke Teen Varsh (BSP government's three years of people's faith and trust)".