Lucknow: Taking a dig at BJP government, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Kunwar Danish Ali has claimed that the budgetary allocation to the state for minority welfare was reduced by 50 percent over the past five years. Is it ‘sab ka saath and sab ka vikas’? wondered Ali who represents Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha constituency in the Lok Sabha. He also alleged that UP’s utilisation of the grant last year was a meagre 9.9 percent.
Hindustan Times quoted BSP MP as saying, “The funds allocated to Uttar Pradesh for the year 2015-16, the first year of the Modi government, was Rs 32,462 lakh and the state utilised Rs 20,248.16 lakh (62 percent). Next year (2016-17), the allocation by the Centre was reduced to Rs 14,364 lakh i.e., 44.2 percent and when BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh during 2017-18, the utilisation declined to 39 percent.” He revealed that the details came in response to a written reply to his query in the Lok Sabha.
Danish Ali expressed shock that the allocation was increased to Rs. 37,653.07 lakh, during the election year (2018-19), but on ground, the utilisation further declined to Rs 11,811.60 lakh (31 percent). While during the year (2019-20), it has further gone down to only 9.9 percent.
He observed that while the total allocation of funds from 2015-16 was reduced to less than 50 percent, the UP government utilized less than 10 percent out of the allocated funds.
However, the BJP denied Ali’s allegations. UP BJP secretary Chandramohan said “Often, attempts are made to discredit us by citing statistics indiscriminately. Everyone knows how Muslims had been reduced to a mere vote bank in the past. Now, with progressive measures, which include ending triple talaq practices and allocating funds for development and modernisation of madrasas, our government is trying to ensure an all-round development”.