Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Tuesday made a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA government, claiming it has adopted a "step-motherly" attitude towards her state and was not doing enough for the development of the backward regions.

"The Congress-led union government is adopting a step-motherly attitude towards Uttar Pradesh. The Congress government has not made any move to provide the Rs.80,000 crore (Rs.800 billion) special economic package for the development of the backward Bundelkhand and Purvanchal regions," said Mayawati at a function here to commemorate one year of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government.

The chief minister did not spare the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party. She said the BJP is misleading traders and the public over the VAT issue. "In order to win support of the people, the BJP is campaigning against VAT," she said.

Without naming Samajwadi Party head and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati said the party was circulating fake CDs in order to malign her party. "The move will prove counterproductive for the SP when the public will come to know about the ill-intentions of the rival party."

Earlier in the morning, Mulayam Singh Yadav circulated to media-persons the CDs in which a state police inspector claims that pressure was mounted on him to falsely implicate Samajwadi Party leaders.

The chief minister said her government favoured providing job and education reservation to even the economically weaker sections among upper castes.

"The BSP government wants that reservation benefits should also be availed of by poor people of the general castes. For this, I have already written a letter to the prime minister to make necessary amendments in the constitution."

 

Source : IANS