Rahul seeks separate authority for Bundelkhand

At the meeting,the PM expressed the Centre’s inability to consider Mayawati’s demand of Rs 80,000-cr package given the fact that the allocation for UP had already been increased to Rs 2 lakh crore,said a source.

Digvijay Singh,AICC general secretary and in-charge of UP,said Gandhi has also demanded that all funds meant for Bundelkhand be channelised through this development authority to eradicate poverty in the region. “This is necessary to check the worsening situation in the region,which is reeling under poverty,illiteracy and underdevelopment,” said Singh.

UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi,who was a part of the delegation,criticised the Mayawati government for demanding the special incentive package. “She (Mayawati) wants to divert the attention of the people from misgovernance,” she said.

The other demands made by the delegation included setting up of a Central University in Bundelkhand,Agriculture University in Jhansi and tax holidays for mega industrial plants in Bundelkhand.

Later,another delegation of Congress MPs from UP led by Digvijay Singh,called on the PM,urging him to examine the possibility of further empowering the elected representatives by giving them a defined share of development units.

In a memorandum,the delegation said that the federal structure of government and “blatant defiance of the spirit of the Constitution by regional parties” have deprived the party’s elected representatives of all opportunity to contribute to development projects and issues.

It is necessary to examine whether funding schemes of the Centre can partly be designed as Central sector scheme (for direct funding as in the case of Maulana Azad Education Foundation) as against being entirely Centrally sponsored scheme (as in the case of NREGA),it added.

“There might also be a possibility giving a defined share of development units to the MPs to be allotted by them,” the memorandum further said.