India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday took back his decision to allow MLAs to buy a car worth Rs. 20 lakh from state funds. "I take back that decision because the media did not interpret this decision in the right manner. And, our MLAs also said they don't want to use their funds for buying the cars," he told media here. Akhilesh's U-turn came after opposition leaders criticized this controversial move, which would have allowed legislators in Uttar Pradesh to buy a car worth Rs. 20 lakh. Cutting across the party lines, opposition parties on Tuesday criticized the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister over his proposal that would enable legislators to buy cars from the Local Area Development fund. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya condemned the decision, and said that would rather focus on the development of their areas. "Legislators of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will not buy cars from local area development fund. BSP legislators will use the money only for the development of their constituencies and no legislator will buy a car from the local area development fund," said Maurya. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kalraj Mishra also echoed similar sentiments, saying the proposal was against the rules. "According to the rules, it is not a correct step because local area development fund is for the development of the constituency. Therefore, it will not be correct to use development fund for personal use. Bharatiya Janata Party has clarified that there is no reason of buying a car from this fund," said Mishra. "If they want then they can make separate budget for this, but our party has decided that we will not buy cars from the local area development fund," he added. Congress leader Pramod Tiwari commenting on the issue said that development of the state should be the top most priority of the legislators. "I have said that we are not in favour of this proposal of buying cars from local area development fund. Though I do not agree that he (Akhilesh Yadav) has given cars to legislators as it just a proposal that many people would like and many will not. I believe that rather than working for personal gains, top priority for any legislator should be to work for the development of the constituency," he said. Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, however, came out in Akhilesh's defence, and said that there were many legislators who could not afford cars and find it difficult to travel within their constituency. "We have increased the limit of local area development fund from 1.25 crore rupees to 1.50 crore rupees. It is not compulsory for those legislators who can afford cars but for those who face difficulties in travelling for the developmental work of constituency. There are many legislators who do not have cars till today," said Khan. "Therefore, this proposal is only for those legislators who are not in a position to buy car and are finding it difficult to look after political and developmental work of their constituency. This is not compulsory as those who want can use it. People have not understood the real reason behind the proposal," he added. A whopping Rs. 81 crore would have been spent if all 403 MLAs in the state decided to buy cars.

UP CM Akhilesh withdraws order on cars for MLAs