Sops UP,up and away

With Rahul Gandhi leading the Congress battle in Uttar Pradesh from the front,and ahead of announcement of the election schedule,the Centre has been more than kind clearing sops and taking decisions that are likely to pay dividend in the coming Assembly polls in the state.

With Rahul Gandhi leading the Congress battle in Uttar Pradesh from the front,and ahead of announcement of the election schedule,the Centre has been more than kind clearing sops and taking decisions that are likely to pay dividend in the coming Assembly polls in the state.

These projects are more or less specific to Uttar Pradesh,unlike other major steps like introduction of the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill,and National Food Security Bill that also have poll ramifications but have a national perspective.

Such has been the hurry that two Uttar Pradesh irrigation projects have been hurried through without even waiting for Cabinet approval. The Centre would be spending a total of about Rs 3,124 crore on these projects,which would benefit farmers in about 24 districts,including Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli.

Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma skipped a late evening meeting of the Cabinet that approved 4.5 per cent reservation of OBC minorities to be in Lucknow to preside over the signing for setting up of steel processing units in Uttar Pradesh.

The project clearances ahead of declaration of a poll schedule come on the backs of Central functionaries taking on the Mayawati government over everything from the NREGS (Jairam Ramesh) to implementation of the Bundelkhand package (Montek Singh Ahluwalia) and cleaning up of rivers (Jayanthi Natarajan).

The spree of projects aimed specifically at Uttar Pradesh include;

Irrigation projects,December 23: Sarayu Nahar Pariyojana and Restoring capacity of Sharada Sahayak Project were announced by the Union Water Resources Ministry as national projects,with the Centre bearing 90 per cent of the total cost of about Rs 3,557 crore.

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Steel unit,December 23: Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma presided over signing of an agreement in Lucknow for setting up a joint venture steel processing unit at Barabanki and Lakhimpur Kheri and announced similar plans for Jhansi,Hardoi and Mirzapur districts.

New quota,December 22: Cabinet approves 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities within the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs. It comes into force from January 1,2012.

Ajit Singh in,December 18: The tie-up with the Rashtriya Lok Dal is aimed at the farming community votes in western Uttar Pradesh.

Package for handloom weavers,December 18: A large majority of the weavers are in Uttar Pradesh.

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Aviation university,December 17: Then civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi announced setting up of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University at Fursatganj in Rae Bareli,with Rahul Gandhi by his side on the dais.

JE panel,November 22: While Japanese Encephalitis kills by the tens every year in the state,there is finally a group of ministers tackling the problem.

Agriculture university,November 24: A Central Agricultural University announced at Jhansi in the name of Rani Jhansi.

Weaver package,November 19: Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announces the package for the weaver community at Varanasi.

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