|
|
| CURRENT AFFAIRS |
|
UTTAR PRADESH |
|
Mayawati installed currency counting machines at official residence: Akhilesh Yadav
The Chief Minister blamed his predecessor for all of the states ills, ranging from corruption to power cuts
Virendra Nath Bhatt
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav stirred a hornets’ nest in the state Assembly on Thursday 31 may, by saying that former Chief Minister Mayawati had installed “currency counting machines” at her official residence. Yadav, alleged that the former CM used these to count “the daily cash collection” generated from the “rampant corruption” during the Bahujan Samaj Party regime.
Intervening during the debate in UP Assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address to the joint session of the UP Legislature, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Not a single department escaped from organised loot during the Mayawati regime.” He said the BSP’s daily collections were so high that currency counting machines were installed at the official residence of the then chief minister Mayawati. Instantly, the BSP members who are now the main opposition in UP Assembly, staged a walk out from the House in protest.
"During the past five years of BSP rule, UP was converted into a laboratory of corruption. All perceived limits were surpassed and innovative methods were devised by BSP ministers for looting the treasury and siphoning funds from development schemes and projects’’ alleged the CM.
Slamming Mayawati for her obsession of installing her own statues Akhilesh Yadav said, " UP is perhaps the only place in the globe where a leader had installed her own statues in her life time and also at her official bungalow which has been allotted to her in her capacity as the former CM’’.
"Thousands of crores of hard-earned money of the poor people of UP was wasted on myriad parks, statues and memorials. Even those structures for the Dalit icons were not spared by the BSP leaders as the cost of the stones used was inflated several times over,’’ he added.
Continuing his tirade against the former CM Mayawati he said, " There is a clamour from districts in Western UP for good institutions and universities for quality higher education. Over a dozen private universities, were set up under an Act passed by the State Assembly, but these universities were good for nothing and were mere degree shops. We all know under what consideration every Tom, Dick and Harry was allowed to set up a private university during the BSP rule in UP’’.
He went on to blame Mayawati for the acute power crisis in UP. “The public sector power utility, UP Power Corporation Limited, was today saddled with an outstanding loan of over Rs 25, 000 crore. This includes Rs 18,000 crore loan from banks and financial institutions and Rs 7,200 outstanding dues of the power generators, the banks were unwilling to lend to the corporation,’’ he said.’
"There was big corruption in power purchase from Independent power producers (IPP) where the UP Power corporation on paper purchased power at the exorbitant rate of Rs 13 per unit , thus creating a big hole in finances of the corporation’’, alleged the CM.
Accusing the former CM of corruption practices in setting up of the power plants under PPP model , Akhilesh Yadav said, “Out of the 10 MOUs with the IPP signed during the Mayawati regime, with installed capacity of 15,000 MW not a single project has materialised. The validity of MOUs signed with the private companies is ending soon and we are faced with a tough task of reviving those projects’’. He said the 10 power projects which were to be commissioned by the end of 2014 are set to suffer from cost and time overrun.
Akhilesh Yadav also sought to train his guns at the Congress for the power shortage in UP. "The congress led UPA government at the Center stalled the 10,000 MW gas based power project at Dadri in Ghaziabad district which was conceived by the then Samajwadi party government in 2004’’. The power project in Western UP which was to be set by the ADAG’s Reliance energy could not take off as it ran into opposition to the land acquisition from the farmers. The former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had spearheaded the agitation against the acquisition of the land.
Against the restricted power demand of over 12,000 MW during the peak hours of the summer season, the total availability of power from all sources including state share in Central sector power plants like NTPC, NHPC and Atomic energy and purchase of costly power from power exchange is close to 8,000 MW.
Virendra Nath Bhatt is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.
virendranathbhatt@gmail.com
|
