Inherited corruption,don’t blame me,says Mayawati

In a statement,read out on her behalf by Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh,the Chief Minister dismissed the allegations as “bizarre and baseless”. Since the Opposition parties had no issue against her government,they were levelling allegations against her relatives as being part of a conspiracy,although she had always kept her family members away from the government.

The Mayawati government has faced serious allegations of corruption in NRHM,MGNREGS,land allotments in Noida and several other matters. BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya had alleged that Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar was influencing land allotments and had floated more than 100 companies for money laundering.

Mayawati claimed that allotment of land in Noida had been made to genuine persons, with full transparency and according to the law,and no procedures had been compromised.

The cabinet secretary released an 84-page ‘white paper’ listing the steps the government had taken for fixing accountability,ensuring transparency and providing clean administration in “24 government departments which are connected to the people”.

“The opposition parties should read the white paper before making false allegations against the state government. Then they will not get a chance to raise a finger against the government,” the cabinet secretary said quoting the chief minister.

He did not take questions. Regarding privatisation of sugar mills,in which there have been allegations of kickbacks,Mayawati said the sugar mills had been running in loss before the formation of her government. Her government had followed the Centre’s guidelines and suggestions in the privatisation process. Besides,the state cabinet has approved a proper process for this.

As for the privatisation process in the power department,she said at the time of her government’s formation,the state had a requirement of 8,000 MW but the generation was only 4,000 MW. In the last four and a half years,there has been an increase of 3,000 MW in power generation,she said.

Mayawati said her government had demanded special packages for the development of Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal regions,but the Centre did not pay any heed while it cleared such packages for its allies in the UPA. The Centre delayed no-objection certificates and environment clearances for big infrastructure projects in the state,she said.