Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati once again stayed away from the Chief Ministers' meet in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Like in the past, she sent her cabinet colleague and Parliamentary Affairs minister Lalji Verma, who read out a speech on her behalf.
Through the speech, Mayawati sought to allege before the chief ministers of all states that UP and its 20 crore people were a neglected lot and that the central government was indifferent to its needs and demands.
While reiterating her oft repeated tall financial demands, she sought to point out, "We have been dealing with major problems like terrorism, communalism, and other related problems without the desired assistance from the centre."
She was of the view, "The centre must provide at least 50 per cent support towards the state's police budget of Rs 7400 crore, besides a flat special grant of Rs 555 crore that we require for carrying out large scale modernisation in the police force."
She said, "Despite the financial constraints, we could undertake several measures for modernisation of the police force for which we received a paltry sum of Rs 100 crore
"Furthermore, the state was currently in the process of recruiting more than 200,000 constables to meet the desperate requirement of proper policing across the sprawling state," she added.
Emphasising how despite the meagre resources, her government had done its bit, she added, "we raised our own Anti-Terrorist Squad, which had done commendable work not only in busting terrorist outfits but also in nabbing a couple of dreaded terrorists wanted in other states."
Flaying the centre on other counts too, she sought to draw the attention of the centre towards what she termed as "poor cooperation" of central intelligence agencies in providing the desired inputs on terrorist activities in the state."
Mayawati also made it a point to pat her own back for handling the law and order situation arising on account of the court verdict in the long pending Ayodhya case.
"Even though the centre did not provide us the required police force, we were able to keep the situation fully under control; and because the communal situation was not allowed to go out of hand in UP, the rest of the country too remained calm," she claimed.
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