By IANS,
Lucknow: In a bid to give her own government a clean chit, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday released an 84-page ‘white paper’ refuting the allegations of rampant corruption in her regime.
Releasing the white paper on her behalf, state Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said: “The chief minister believes in utmost transparency that is followed in all key departments and undertakings of the government.”
“The chief minister is clearly of the view that the allegations levelled by the opposition were baseless and politically motivated, yet she felt it necessary to issue a white paper on various issues relating to as many as 24 departments.”
These included the departments of public works, housing, industrial development, irrigation, urban development, energy, agriculture, rural development, excise, health, basic education, higher education, and social welfare and mining, that were handling government funds to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees.
The white paper, however, sought to claim that the Mayawati government “believed in maintaining high standards of integrity, so much so that it never hesitated to order punitive action even against its MLAs (legislators), MPs or ministers in case they were found involved in any kind of corrupt or criminal activity.”
The attempt comes as the government currently faces allegations of “large financial irregularities and huge pilferage of funds by not just the bureaucracy and ruling party leaders or ministers, but even by the chief minister”.