The Hindu : Front Page : Mayawati calls Rae Bareli rally to “expose” Congress

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Mayawati calls Rae Bareli rally to “expose” Congress

Atiq Khan

She dubs Sonia’s ‘ready-to-go-to-jail’ statement a political drama

LUCKNOW: With Chief Minister Mayawati — irked at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s accusation that the Uttar Pradesh government is creating hurdles to the development process — calling a ‘maha rally’ in Rae Bareli, the face-off between the Congress and the BSP regime has deepened.

The rally, whose date is to be announced soon, is to “expose” the Congress and the UPA government’s record of development in the State. More specifically, on the issue of how many jobs have been created in Rae Bareli and Sultanpur (Amethi) since the Congress-led UPA came to power at the Centre in 2004. Ms. Mayawati dubbed Ms. Gandhi’s statement, made at Lalganj on Tuesday, that she was ready to go to jail “a political drama,” and said had the BSP been like other parties the Congress president’s rally and roadshow in Dadri would not have been allowed. And had the Congress violated the ban (prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Cr.PC) at Lalganj, she would have fulfilled Ms. Gandhi’s desire to go to jail.

The Chief Minister defended her government’s action cancelling allotment of land for a rail coach factory there. She deputed her Principal Secretary Net Ram to conduct an inquiry into the objections raised by farmers and the land dispute pertaining to the rail coach unit. After he submitted his report, within three days, the Cabinet would take a final decision on the rail coach factory land, Ms. Mayawati said. It would have been better had the rail factory been planned in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region. The manner in which development projects were allotted to Rae Bareli and Amethi (represented by Ms. Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha) by the UPA government seemed to suggest that there was no other Lok Sabha constituency in the State. Rae Bareli was to the Congress what Safai (the former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh’s village) was to the Samajwadi Party, Ms. Mayawati said.

If the UPA government sent a proposal to set up 50-60 factories in other parts of the State, land would be made readily available, she told a press conference here. Dismissing the allegation that her government was stalling the development process, she said that according to official records 20 factories had been established in Rae Bareli (since the time of Indira Gandhi); of these only nine were functioning and the others closed down. An extent of 192 acres of land was locked up in the closed units.

Of the 16 units set up in Sultanpur, seven applied for closure and the others were functioning, she said adding 862 acres turned wasteland.

As for the UPA chairperson’s description of Rae Bareli and Amethi as the karmabhumi of the Gandhi family and her home, Ms. Mayawati invited intellectuals and the media for a discourse on what the Congress had for the development of the two constituencies in the last 60 years.

Only a few Congressmen benefited from the development process and no benefit accrued to Dalits, the OBCs and the minorities, she alleged, blaming the Congress leadership for poverty and unemployment in the area.

Also, the Congress stalled development, launching an agitation against the Ganga Expressway and Yamuna Expressway projects.

Nor did the Centre take any decision on the Rs. 80,000-crore special package sought by the State, the Chief Minister said.

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