Hitting out at the Union Government for its biased attitude towards Uttar Pradesh, senior minister in Samajwadi Party Government Shivpal Singh Yadav said that centre was willfully not clearing development funds of the state. “Uttar Pradesh is marching on the path of development. Many schemes including construction of roads, canals and generating power have been initiated. The state needs money but it is unfortunate that Centre has not released money which belongs to UP,” Yadav told The Pioneer here on Monday. “From where Centre gets money – it is from taxes and UP, home to 20 crore people, is the biggest tax payer. So the money we are asking for its actually our money,” he said.
He said that latest case is of compensation distribution among the farmers who lost their crops in unseasonal rains that lashed parts of Uttar Pradesh. The state had asked for over Rs 1100 crore for these distraught farmers but the Centre did not release a penny. “It was Samajwadi Party Government that provided relief to the farmers and distributed compensation from our own resources. It was UP government that paid Rs 7 lakh as ex-gratia to the family members of those farmers who lost their lives or committed suicide following loss of crop. In comparison the Centre gave just Rs 2.5 lakh as ex-gratia to the family of the farmers,” he said.
Yadav, who is younger brother of Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav said that Union Government had stopped Central assistance on many development schemes on one pretext or the other. Our officials have written innumerable letters but we are yet to hear from the union government. “The Union Government does not want UP should march to the path of development. It is UP that made Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of the country because BJP and its ally won 73 out of 80 seats from here. Still, this is unfortunate that Central Government is throwing spanners on all the schemes launched by the state government,” he said.
The PWD Minister said UP Government has initiated projects to generate electricity. New thermal power projects are being constructed. By the end of July over 1000 MW of additional electricity will be generated. “The Samajwadi Party has made a commitment to provide 16-20 hour electricity in rural areas and 20-24 hours in urban areas by 2016. We will stick to this guidelines. Because we samajwadis jo kahte hain wohi karte hain,” Yadav said.