By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati won a reprieve as governor T.V. Rajeshwar refused to grant permission to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) to prosecute her for alleged corruption in the Taj Corridor project.
The governor turned down the CBI's request for permission, citing lack of evidence. Mayawati was accused of corruption in the project to develop a corridor along the bank of the Yamuna river near the Taj Mahal in Agra. The project was conceived in 2002 when she was heading the state government.
Welcoming the governor's decision, the Bahjuan Samaj Party (BSP) president said that the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in New Delhi, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had consciously and deliberately filed a false case on her.
"They had the government in the centre and they used the CBI. It was also one of their men who went to the Supreme Court," Mayawati told a hurriedly called press conference here.
"The BJP anyway tried to malign me, but let me say with all humility and without any rancour or ill-will against anyone in particular that you people in the media also helped in furthering the impression that I had committed a financial irregularity to the tune of Rs.17 billion in the Taj Corridor case," she said.
"Using this media hype, the opposition parties led by the BJP launched a campaign to tarnish my image and paint me as a corrupt person. They tried their best to mislead people by using this false propaganda," said the BSP chief, who last month won the state assembly elections and assumed power.
"I am happy that the more they campaigned against me the more the people put their faith in me," she said, adding: "I don't understand that when the whole project was just worth Rs.1.7 billion how could anyone take away Rs.17 billion."