The Hindu : National : Mayawati promises laws on quota, jobs

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Thursday, Feb 07, 2008
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Mayawati promises laws on quota, jobs

Special Correspondent

PATNA: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday promised a series of legislations on reservation and employment should the Bahujan Samaj Party be voted to power in the coming elections to the Lok Sabha.

The BSP chief declared her public meeting at the Gandhi Maidan here as the beginning of her campaign for the elections.

Ms. Mayawati picked holes in the Congress and BJP policies and said she would safeguard the interests of the downtrodden — the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Dalits among Muslims and Christians and other religious minorities.

She alleged the SPG cover was not granted to her owing to a conspiracy of the Centre at the behest of the Congress. The people would not forgive this, she said.

Ms. Mayawati saw the reopening of the Taj Corridor case as misuse of government machinery by the Congress to pressure her. The BJP had resorted to the same tactics implicating her in false cases, she alleged.

She said she was not an opportunist. “I’m not like someone whose only aim is to somehow be a Minister whichever party or coalition is in power at the Centre,” the BSP leader said.

Ms. Mayawati promised to scrap the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and come up with a new initiative guaranteeing round-the-year permanent employment should she come to power.

She would come up with a legislation to distribute government land among the downtrodden, she said.

As for reservation for Dalits among the Muslims and the Christians, Ms. Mayawati said her pleas had gone unheard and charged that parties such as the Congress and the BJP were not interested in improving their lot. Her party would not let them down.

She had her own prescription for reservation in the private sector. Assistance would be given only if they abide by her conditions and after a takeover of any public sector undertaking, the same reservation policy should be adhered to by the new dispensation.

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