No school, Mulayam village has college

One college is in Saifi and the other — now under construction — about a km from Etawah on the bypass. It’s quite another matter that hardly anybody from the village goes to the college. ‘‘People first need primary schools. The literacy level in the entire district is extremely poor. What will people do with a college,’’ points out a district administration official.

But Yadav has taken care of that problem with the school that’s now coming up — S S Memorial Public School. ‘‘Now with all this controversy over funds, the construction of school will get stalled,’’ says the official.

Two days after vigilance raids at the colleges and school, Yadav’s family has closed ranks and set up base in Etawah. His brother, Shivpal, state SP leader, and son Akhilesh Yadav, Lok Sabha MP, are camping there, preparing their defence.

Yadav’s brother, Shivpal, doesn’t look unduly worried. ‘‘Mayawati is not going to remain Chief Minister forever. Right now, she has the entire state bureaucracy and administration in her pocket but then things are not going to remain the same. She will have to pay heavily for challenging the Samajwadis,’’ he said.

Shivpal also had an explanation for the funds used for constructing the school and colleges. ‘‘Let me make it clear that the development funds of MLAs and MPs were not used. All the funds were given either by MLCs (Member of Legislative Council) or Rajya Sabha MPs. And there is nothing wrong in it,’’ he says. A MLC can spend his development fund anywhere in the state, and an RS member anywhere in the country since they do not have a constituency.

And making it clear that the last word had not been said in the Mulayam-Mayawati war, he demanded that an inquiry be conducted into the construction of the BSP office in Ambedkar Nagar, Mayawati’s constituency, and also into Ambedkar Park, the BSP leader’s pet project.

‘‘The BSP headquarters in Ambedkar Nagar, where Mayawati stood and asked her MLAs and MPs to contribute to party funds itself was made from their development funds. At least we made colleges and a school for the people, not party office for ourselves,’’ added Shivpal.

All this is not deterring the special team constituted on the CM’s directive from conducting a probe into the alleged misuse of development funds. Meanwhile, the district police today sent a dossier to the state government, listing the criminal cases against SP leaders, including Mulayam.