Pay attention to your scam-ridden party, Mayawati tells Sonia

LUCKNOW - Sonia Gandhi should pay attention to her own party that was “full of scams”, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said Friday while hitting out at the Congress president for her remarks on “rampant corruption” in the state.

In a statement issued a day after Gandhi’s rally in Allahabad, Mayawati lashed out at her for sweeping remarks against the working of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh.

“It is high time Sonia Gandhi started paying attention to her own party that is full of scams. Let her put her own house in order before pointing fingers at us,” Mayawati said.

“The nation is today paying the price for corruption at all levels in the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government,” she alleged, and added that “there are more skeletons to tumble out of the cupboard”.

Taking strong exception to Gandhi’s charge about “misappropriation” and “pilferage” of funds released by the central government for various development schemes, Mayawati said: “The truth is that that the Congress-led UPA government has not been giving us the required funds.

“Soon after the formation of our government in 2007, we had sought a special financial package of Rs.80,000 crore for the overall development of Uttar Pradesh’s most backward Bundelhand and Purvanchal regions but not a penny was given by the centre so far.”

She gave several other examples of the financial demands pending with the union government.

Alleging “step-motherly treatment” by the central government, the chief minister claimed: “As against the state’s total dues of Rs.34,083 crore, the centre had yet to release anything beyond Rs.16,414 crore.”

She also blamed New Delhi for deliberately holding back its clearance for an international airport near Greater Noida. Besides, she accused the Manmohan Singh government for delaying allocation of coal blocks that was adversely affecting power generation in the state.

In her speech at Allahabad, Gandhi had said corruption in Uttar Pradesh was “rampant at all levels, law and order is at its lowest ebb, thereby creating an environment where people are not safe and the common man is oppressed”.

Highlighting the central government’s serious concern about development, Gandhi added that funds released by the central government towards various development schemes and projects had failed to reach the intended beneficiaries due to large scale pilferage.