(News) Maya's bounty for parks and memorials but peanuts for poor Bundelkhand

Maya's bounty for parks and memorials but peanuts for poor Bundelkhand

Unfazed by all the criticism heaped on her, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati continues to flush money into her personal agenda of parks and memorials at the expense of development. The supplementary budget of Rs 1,500 crore passed by the assembly on Wednesday sets aside Rs 500 crore for Mayawati's ongoing pet projects while drought-hit Bundelkhand gets only Rs 10 crore.

According to an estimate, more than 2,000 farmers have committed suicide in the Bundelkhand region in the past five years because of crop failures and debts. Similarly, eastern UP where floods wreak havoc every year, got a meagre Rs 50 crore in the name of development. Bundelkhand's paltry allocation is despite the CM's projection of herself as the champion of the region - apparently to counter Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's development initiatives there.

This is the same region for which Mayawati has written a dozen letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a special aid package.But when it came to allocating resources from her own government's kitty, she chose the Ambedkar Parivartan Sthal and the Kanshi Ram Memorial over Bundelkhand.However, while the supplementary budget was being passed in the assembly, BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya, blamed the Centre for the condition of the farmers in Bundelkhand.

"The Centre must address the problems of the farmers who have been reeling under drought for more than a decade. The BSP MPs had met the PM recently and informed him that the central government had not taken any constructive initiative in this regard," Maurya said.

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Courtesy: Indiatoday.intoday.in