Bhujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati announced that if her party came to power in Uttar Pradesh, it would order a high-level probe into the misuse of the state government’s contingency funds and Chief Minister’s discretionary funds during the present regime.
Mayawati also demanded that the state government to immediately take over the administration of the Choudhary Charan Singh College in Etawah as per directive of the Supreme Court.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Mayawati said that the Etawah college was being used as a personal property by ‘a family’ even as Rs 100 crores have been chanelled by government agencies for its development.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Akhilesh Yadav government to decide on taking over the management of Chaudhary Charan Singh College, whose governing body is headed by his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav is the founder of the college, while his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav is a member of the governing body.
The ultimatum came from a bench headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur, which told senior advocate Harish Salve representing the UP government, “You (state) have created an asset after infusing Rs 100 crore into it. It has to be a government-controlled institution now. It is your institution now and you must take over the management.”
The court was critical of the fact that the state government had in 2002-03 released from its ‘contingency’ fund Rs 100 crore for this Etawah college for birth centenary celebrations of Chaudhary Charan Singh, but later “one particular family” managed it through a society. The money was released when Mulayam was the Chief Minister in 2002-03.
On his part, the state government’s counsel defended that no other institution had received such funds in the state but added that this was the only college in the name of Chaudhary Charan Singh in UP and that is why the money was given.
About its connection with “one particular family”, Salve responded: “Some questions are better left unanswered… that is the reality of present day politics. I would not want to pretend and say no.” Salve said that the government would take a call on taking over the college’s management.