LUCKNOW: As the discussion on the governor's address ahead of the UP budget drew to a close in the Vidhan Parishad on Friday, members from the opposition and ruling party sparred over the achievements of the BJP government listed out by the governor.
Where the Samajwadi Party MLCs attempted to talk about the government's failures, BJP members hit out at SP and Congress, taking potshots at senior leaders like Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
Senior SP member Naresh Uttam said if the government only wanted to rake issues of previous governments, then the state was unlikely to progress.
"UP is a huge state with many problems. Unemployment is increasing while trained manpower is sitting home. Journalists who have tried to show the mirror to the government have been harassed. Levels of education are falling. However, people are not going to fall for the fake data which the government is showing. That is why BJP has been minimised in this election and SP's vote share has gone up from 29% in 2017 to 36% in 2022," he said.
Another SP MLC Man Singh questioned BJP's definition of good governance, asking whether "a case where a rape victim went to a police station to get an FIR registered and was raped again by police personnel at the station, counted as good governance".
"BJP talks of rural housing for which it is giving Rs 1.2 lakh per house. This is against the SP government scheme where Rs 3.2 lakh each was given for construction of houses under the Lohia Awas Scheme. BJP preaches culture but during counting of votes in Jhansi, their cultured cadre beat up the SSP. They talk of being hi-tech, but SP started the Dial 100 service for which they have only changed the number," he said.
In response to the opposition's remarks, leader of the Upper House Swatantra Dev Singh said, "SP likes to take credit for everything. It will not be surprising if tomorrow party president Akhilesh Yadav says that he got the Ram Temple made. The opposition is protesting for the sake of protesting. People have faith in our work, intent and policies, and therefore, created history by electing us to power for the second time."
Singh said that while SP was raising questions about power supply under BJP, it was forgetting that under the SP government, power was supplied to only two VIP districts. There were power cuts during Hindu festivals while during "other" festivals, there was no disruption of power, he said, adding that for BJP, every single person in the state was a VIP.
