President's parliamentary joint session address directionless: Mayawati

Terming president Pratibha Patil's address to the joint session of the Parliament as "directionless", Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today said it was a jugglery of figures aimed at "misleading" the common people.

In a statement issued here, Mayawati said though the address promises to provide relief to the common people, the works undertaken by the UPA government so far indicate hollowness of promises like these.

The chief minister said that the aim for achieving 8% rate of development in the address was a mere rhetoric whereas the reality is the UPA government has failed on all fronts.

Nothing has been said on providing relief to farmers in the address, she said adding that the policies of the UPA have always benefited hoarders and black marketeers.

There had been no uplift in the social, economic and academic condition of ST, ST and OBC since the past 50 years, Mayawati said.

Expressing surprise over what she termed as "back patting" by the Centre on the NREGS, she said it seems that the UPA government wants the people to remain poor or else it would had devised ways for providing them with permanent jobs throughout the year to improve their lot.

She said the UPA government has also failed to combat terrorism and Naxalism.

On the price rise issue, she said it is a result of the UPA's faulty economic policies.