Lucknow: May 13, 2008 The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ms. Mayawati, while addressing a function organised to mark the completion of one year of her Government held at the C.M.S. Degree College, Kanpur road here today, said that the State Government’s achievements on the law and order and development front were noteworthy. The State Government took several decisions of historical and far-reaching importance to create an atmosphre conducive to development and peace, in order to measure upto the expectations. People reposed faith in the policies and programmes of the BSP Government by ensuring landslide victory of BSP candidates in recently held by-polls. She extended her heartiest felicitations to the people and assured them that the Government would spare no efforts to make Uttar Pradesh a developed and prosperous State. She said that the BSP Government would provide opportunities of development to all the sections of society, so that those lagged behind in the race of development could also benifit and brought into the mainstream of development. On the occasion, the Chief Minister laid foundation, inaugrated and made announcements of more than 48 schemes totalling to Rs.8500 crore. She inaugrated 375 metre long 8-lane Mahamaya flyover constructed over NOIDA-Greater NOIDA Expressway and Okhla Barrage, NOIDA crossing. The bridge has been constructed at a cost of about Rs. 67 crore. She also dedicated to the people 26 new roads constructed by the Public Works Department at a cost of Rs. 840 crore. Besides, she dedicated Mahamaya Government Degree College, B.B.Nagar Bulandshahr, Ramabai Ambedkar Government Degree College, Sambhal, Moradabad, Gautam Buddha Government Degree College, Gunnaur (Badaun) and Panchsheel Convention Centre of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur to the people. She laid foundation of 1000 M.W. Anpara-D Thermal Project costing Rs. 5300 crore, Rs. 1077 crore Agra Drinking Water Supply Project, Rs. 270.95 crore Kanpur Drinking Water Supply Project, Rs. 111.02 crore Varanasi Drinking Water Supply Project, Rs. 190.89 crore Kanpur Sewage Disposal Project, 24 new bridges costing Rs. 269.46 crore, widening and improvement work of 13 main roads costing Rs. 452.50 crore, hostel to be constructed at the training centre of the Rural Development Bank at a cost of Rs. 3.50 crore. She also laid foundation of the residential and non-residential buildings of the Divisional Commissioner Aligarh, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Degree College, Padaria, Mainpuri and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Degree College, Anougi, Kannauj. Ms. Mayawati also laid foundation of Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Degree College, Maharajganj, Mahamaya Government Degree College, Sherkot, Bijnore, Manyawar Kanshiram Government Degree College, Gabhana, Aligarh, Manyawar Kanshiram Government Degree College, Ninauwa, Farrukhabad, Savitribai Phule Women’s Hostel at the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur and residential and non-residential buildings for the police. In addition to that she also laid foundation of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar multi-speciality hospital, Mahamaya Girls Inter College Building and Panchsheel Boys Inter College at NOIDA, Manyawar Kanshiram multi-speciality hospital building and Savitri Bai Phule Girls’ Inter College building at NOIDA, Manyawar Kanshiram Engineering College of Information and Technology, Azamgarh and Ambedkarnagar, Mahamaya Polytechnic of Information and Technology at Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mahamayanagar, Chandauli and Gorakhpur and Gautam Buddha Boys’ Inter College Building at Greater NOIDA. Ms. Mayawti announced to provide financial assistance of Rs. 4,824 per student for one-year correspondence course in Urdu Journalism. She also said that decision had been taken to open 50 new polytechnics, 250 new I.T.I.s through public-private-participation under the new programme of the expansion of technical education. She also announced to upgrade all 278 government high schools to the intermediate level. Besides, she said that decision had been taken to consider opening of co-education schools, in case of non-receipt of applications for the establishment of girl schools in served and unserved development blocks. Decision had also been taken to reduce distance standard from 10 km. to 5 km. between schools, in order to encourage opening of schools and intermediate colleges in the private sector. On the occasion, she presented letter of allotment/keys of houses to the seven (7) beneficiaries under the housing for the poor scheme. These beneficiaries included Smt. Sheela and Ashish Sharma of Badaun, Niranjan Singh and Karan Singh of Mathura, Smt. Kanti Singh, Shri. Tejpal and Irshad of Meerut. These houses have been constructed in the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Nagar scheme. She also inaugurated Saubhagyawati Surakhshit Matritva Yojna for the women belonging to B.P.L. families with a view to providing secured and institutional delivery facilities to them. Under the scheme, provision has been made to pay Rs. 1.85 lakh per 100 deliveries to the identified nursing home and private hospitals, which would perform the said number of deliveries of pregnant women belonging to B.P.L. category. Ms. Mayawati said that her government was committed to live up to the expectations of the people and all efforts were being made to make Uttar Pradesh a leading state of the country. She said that only B.S.P. Government could provide an atmosphere free from injustice, crime, fear, corruption which was condusive for development. All the governments ruling the state since independence could not provide such an atmosphere. She said that after coming to power, the biggest challenge before the government was to streamline the law and order of the state. The Government had succeeded in it and there was a sharp decline in the incidents of crime. The Chief Minister maintained that the State Government had brought an end to the atmosphere of anarchy following which the situation stabilised. She said that peace was necessary for development and the government took some bold decision to improve the law and order, as against the previous regime where the F.I.R.s were not registered and the jungle raaj pervaded all over the State. She remarked that her government accorded top priority to the establishment of the ‘rule of law by the law’ in the State and abolish the jungle raaj. Provisions like A.T.S., S.T.F., U.P.C.O.C.A., S.I.T. were made to deal with terrorism, notorious criminals etc. The SC/ST Act was being followed strictly. Efforts had been made to ensure development and welfare of naxal affected areas. She congratulated the police administration for the dip in the crimegraph. Ms. Mayawati said that after coming to power, she immediately held a meeting of senior officers of the State and reviewed the law and order situation as well as development works. At that meeting, she had listed her government’s priorities and ordered the officers to follow them strictly. She said that the services and facilities being provided by the State Government should reach the common man and no let up in it would be tolerated. She said that the officer had been directed to remain present in their offices between 10 a.m. to 12 noon, so that on the spot redress of people’s grievances could be ensured. Besides, the officers had been directed to organise ‘tehsil diwas’ and ‘thana diwas’ on a regular basis. She said that the government was specially focussing on the villages and poor among the farmers. She said that the State Government had prepared all its policies in the light of Sarvajan Hitai, Sarvajan Sukhai (welfare and happiness for all). The Chief Minister said that monitoring of law and order had been made foolproof at every level. The Government’s intent was to ensure that the benefit of government schemes should reach beneficiaries. She said that her government had doubled the amount of all types of pension and the number of the beneficieries too had been raised. For the development of villages new norms had been fixed for the selection of gram sabhas on the basis of population of ‘Sarva Samaj’ under Dr. Ambedkar Samgra Vikas Yojna, so as to ensure the benefit of development to all. For the development and expansion of basic facilities in towns and cities, Manyawar Kanshi Ram Shahri Samgra Vikas Yojna had been launched. We had put back on rails the development of the entire state within our limited resources, without the cooperation of the Central Government. She said that electrification work lying unfinished in 17,179 villages had been completed and power supply ensured in more than 20,000 villages Dr. Ambedkar Gram Sabha Yojna. Ms. Mayawati said that on assumption of power she inherited empty coffers and the serious problem of power. The government took necessary steps to meet power crisis without loss of time and long term schemes had been formulated to solve the problem. She said that these efforts were expected to result in the availability of 10,000 MW in the state in the five years. She said that almost all the previous governments failed to pay heed to power generation in keeping with the need of increasing population. She said that efforts of present government had resulted in 100 per cent payment of cane prices to the farmers in the year of 2006-07 and about 75 per cent in 2007-08. The remaining payment of cane dues would be made soon. The penalty for less weighing had been increased from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,000. The crushing capacity had been increased by raising the number of sugar mills. The Chief Minister said that keeping in view the importance of education, 88,000 primary teachers were being recruited, besides ensuring qualitative improvement in education. Buildings of 5,500 primary and higher primary schools besides 27,000 class rooms had been constructed in one year. Decision had also been taken to hold students union’s elections according to the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee. With a view to ensuring participation of private sector in technical education and higher education, emphasis had been laid on the creation of more and more employment opportunities. The initiative had for the first time been taken to implement the reservation system in the jobs being created in the private sector on voluntary basis. She said that schemes were being implemented for the development of rural areas and top most priority had been given to employment generation adding that the rule of previous governments had been confined to a few places. She said that for medical and health facilities her government had made a budgetary provision of Rs. 5626 crore for high class facilities in every area without any discrimination which was 20 per cent more than the last year. Besides, a provision of Rs. 383 crore had been made for the construction of primary and community health centres. Hospitals established earlier were being upgraded, expanded and modernised. Ms. Mayawati said that her government had been sensitive to the interests of the destitute, weaker sections and the poor from the very beginning. Decision had been taken for establishing several schools for handicapped persons for making them self-reliant. Besides it, decision had also been taken to establish a university at Lucknow for them on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. For the betterment and welfare of minorities, Madarsa Siksha Parishad had been constituted for the first time in the State. She said that a proposal for inclusion of socially, economically and educationally backward caste in the scheduled castes list had been sent to the Government of India. Request had to also been made to Central Government to bring constitutional amendment for providing benefit of reservation to the poor people of upper castes in the private sector. The backlog of reserved posts had been filled by way of drive. The recruitments under general category had also commenced. The Chief Minster especially referred to the efforts of state government for providing relief to the drought affected people in Bundelkhand. On the occasion she said that after taking the reigns of administration, she was told that the drought conditions of Bundelkhand were very severe. It was due to the insensitivity of previous government that the situation worsened in the last four years. She said that her government declared nine districts as drought affected without wasting time and relief and development works were taken up on war-footing. She said that she herself went to Bundelkhand and schemes worth Rs. 1500 crore were started. In each village food grain banks had been opened for providing foodgrains to the destitute and helpless persons, besides provision or community kitchen. The Minimum amount of agriculture subsidy had been increased from Rs. 250 to Rs. 1000 for small and marginal farmers. Under NREGA 6.37 lakh families were given employment and 3.13 crore man days employment was created. The Chief Minister said that the government had formulated a pragmatic middle of the path economic policy. Ganga Express-way project costing Rs. 40,000 crore had been prepared on PPP basis, which would connect the entire Uttar Pradesh to Delhi. The industrial development had been given a fillip by strengthening the infrastructure facilities in the State. Besides, VAT regime had been implemented and tax rates of necessary items have been reduced so as to bring down prices of essential commodities. Ms. Mayawati said that the foundation laid by Dr. Ambedkar for an egalitarian social order was carried forward by Manyawar Shri Kanshiram. No body had done any thing in memory and honour of such great persons. She said that the government took initiative in this direction and to perpetuate their memory to constructing memorials. Besides, several other schemes had been launched after the name of Saints, Gurus and great men, so that the people could take inspiration from their life and struggles. She said that the people had realised during one year of the rule that the promises made by the B.S.P. Government were not confined to paper, but were seen on the ground. She assured the people that every moment of the B.S.P. Government was devoted to the welfare and betterment of the people. Earlier, the Chief Minster inaugurated a photo exhibition based one year’s achievements of the government. Cultural programmes were also presented on the occasion. The Chief Minister appreciated M.P. and Chairman U.P. Advisory Council Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, Chief Secretary Mr. P.K. Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Mr. Shashank Shekhar Singh for their commitment for implementing the policies of the Government. While the Chief Secretary Mr. P.K. Mishra welcomed the Chief Minister and other guests, Principal Secretary Information Mr. Vijai Shanker Pandey proposed vote of thanks. On this occasion, M.P. Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, several Minister, MPs, MLAs, Party office bearers and Cabinet Secretary Mr. Shashank Shekhar Singh were present, besides senior officers and eminent citizens.

Calls for consensus on passage of Women’s Reservation Bill

Lucknow: May 6, 2008 The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati, while clearing the stand of the State Government on the issue of Women’s Reservation Bill, said that from the outset her Government was of the view that “Jitni jiski bhagidari, Utni uski hissedari”. She said that considering that the population of the women was 50 per cent of the total population of the country, therefore, it would be justified that they were given 50 per cent reservation in all levels of the political structure of the country. The C.M. said that her Government welcomed the proposal of 33 per cent reservation of women as it was an important step towards the empowerment of women, but it also expresses its disapproval of certain provisions incorporated in the Bill. Ms. Mayawati said that there was no provision to ensure that the women of all categories of the Sarva Samaj got the benefit of reservation. Therefore, her government was of the view that certain important amendments should be made in the Bill. She said that her government believed that out of the 33 per cent reservation quota proposed for the women, there should be provision for separate reservation for the women belonging to SC/ST and OBC categories, viz. these categories should not be given quota within quota. *******

Einstein’s letter auctioned

afp

LONDON: A letter in which Albert Einstein termed God as the product of human weakness sold at an auction here on Thursday for more than £200,000.

60 % vote in Karnataka phase II

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Polling in the second phase of elections for 66 seats of the Karnataka Assembly held in 10 districts on Friday was by and large peaceful. In the first phase on May 10, elections were conducted for 89 seats. The third phase, covering the remaining 69 seats, is scheduled for May 22.

A violent incident in Bellary on Thursday, resulting in the transfer of the Superintendent of Police, and a shootout by a naxal group at Hebri in Udupi district in which two people were killed, did not have much impact on the polling.

Udupi and the neighbouring district of Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest polling percentage of 68. It was 55 per cent in Bellary.

Chief Electoral Officer M.N. Vidyashankar said the polling average was 60.3 per cent. It was 63.3 per cent in the first phase.

Heavy security

Director-General and Inspector-General of Police R. Srikumar told The Hindu that apart from the State police and the special anti-naxalite police, a number of platoons of Central paramilitary forces were on duty.

There was only one attempt at bogus voting in a polling station at the New Mangalore Port and even this was thwarted by the police. The polling percentages in the other districts were: Chikmagalur (63), Chitradurga (60), Davanagere (64), Koppal (62), Raichur (47), Shimoga (60) and Uttara Kannada (61).