By IANS
Lucknow : State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi Thursday said that mainly dalits are dying on account of starvation in Bundelkhand in southwestern Uttar Pradesh.
Lashing out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Joshi said, “The chief minister was out to conceal these deaths only because most of the victims were poor dalits.”
“At least 204 starvation deaths have taken place in Bundelkhand over the past eight months since Mayawati came to power in the state,” she told reporters here.
Claiming that the central government had given Rs.280 billion ($7 billion) to Uttar Pradesh since the present Mayawati government came to power in April 2007, she demanded a “white paper” on the distribution of these grants.
“As many as 2,200 people have died on account of abject poverty in the eight districts of Bundelkhand over the past four drought years,” she said.
Referring to Mayawati’s oft repeated accusations of “apathy and neglect” by the central government, Joshi said: “I would like to point out that other than making public announcements about demanding special packages for Bundelkhand, the state government has done nothing concrete in that direction.”
“Uttar Pradesh did ask for a special package of Rs.100 billion for agriculture development in the (Bundelkhand) region for which the central government was inclined; but it was regrettable that the state government had so far, neither prepared district agricultural plans for any of the districts, nor constituted the district planning committees,” she said.
She also said that Mayawtai’s claim of facing life threat from the Congress was nothing but a “big political drama”.