Mulayam eyes quid pro quo for bailing out UPA

Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to support the UPA government to keep the alleged communal forces away, and in a way, back the UPA's reforms push, has not only generated heat at the stockmarket, but also in UP's power corridors.

Word is doing the rounds that by standing by the Centre at this crucial juncture, Mulayam has extracted his pound of flesh for his home state, in the form of the Centre's continued support for a string of development projects in UP undertaken by his son Akhilesh Yadav.

The Akhilesh Yadav government has already staked claim to R90,000 crore that it says the Centre owes to UP. This includes the money committed by the Union government under various Central schemes even as UP seeks a bigger share in the existing Centrally-sponsored schemes, apart from fresh schemes in areas not covered so far.

Apart from private sector investments, UP also needs big bucks to fund development in the social sector, for which Central funds are indispensable.

"There is an immediate need to develop roads, especially in the rural areas, provide clean drinking water, control floods, fund JNNURM schemes optimally and provide scholarships to OBCs, SCs and STs to usher in equality in such a vast state. For all these projects, the state has to look up to the Centre for help, as it does not have sufficient resources of its own," said an official of the finance department.

The major sectors for which UP has sought funds from the Centre are: R5,000 crore for power, R13,000 crore for roads, R3,000 crore for drinking water, R4,000 crore for scholarships, R4,500 crore for higher education, R5,267 crore for vocational education and R14,500 crore for rural housing, amid others.

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