The Uttar Pradesh CM boosts Dalit agenda, won’t spend a rupee on memorials.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati used the 2010-11 state budget presented in the vidhan sabha on Thursday to boost her Dalit agenda. The BSP regime has earmarked nearly Rs10,000 crore for the welfare of scheduled castes (SCs), which is the biggest such one-time allocation by any government in the state.
Finance minister Lalji Verma announced that Rs9,099.75 crore had been budgeted under the special component plan (SCP), meant for the welfare of SCs. The minister announced a clutch of schemes aimed at the welfare of Dalits and the poor and deprived people belonging to other castes and minorities.
Interestingly, not a single rupee has been provided for the construction of parks, memorials and statues, which have been an obsession with Mayawati. She was apparently held back by the stringent view the Supreme Court has taken of the thousands of crores already spent on erecting monuments to Dalit leaders.
Political compulsions linked to the next assembly elections scheduled in 2012 seem to have driven Mayawati to shed all inhibitions and openly pursue her policy according the highest priority to Dalits. This approach had been diluted since the 2007 assembly election as Brahmins were given prime positions in the ministry and in the BSP organisation.
However, with the Congress gaining ground in UP, the BSP seems to have returned to its original strategy. The new schemes announced in the budget also indicate that apart from Dalits, most backward castes, minorities and poor upper castes are also very much on Mayawati’s political radar.
The budget provides for a new scheme — the Mahamaya Garib Arthik Madad Yojna — under which all below-poverty-line (BPL) families not benefiting under any other subsidised foodgrains or pension scheme would get a monthly grant of Rs300. An amount of Rs402 crore has been allocated for this.
The state government would also reimburse scholarship/fees of about 2.20 crore pre-10th standard and post-10th standard students from backward classes, at a cost of Rs1,045 crore. Besides, there are special schemes for the education and marriage of girls from poor families, especially those belonging to minorities and backward classes.
Where welfare schemes are concerned, even a huge fiscal deficit of Rs22,742.49 crore does not seem to have prevented the Dalit leader from widening her wallet.
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