Lucknow:

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Sunday launched 484 development and welfare schemes, involving an expenditure of Rs.6,035 crore, to mark the fifth death anniversary of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party’s founder Kanshi Ram.

The schemes include several drinking water and sanitation projects, slum improvement programmes, road construction and housing for the poor, besides several social security schemes for the Dalits as well as the poor from other castes.

Addressing a gathering at the Kanshi Ram memorial here, the chief minister said: ‘It is very heartening to see such a massive gathering on this solemn occasion.’

She flayed the opposition for criticising her government for spending crores of rupees on various memorials and monuments dedicated to Dalit icons, including Kanshi Ram.

‘I would like to urge all those who were critical of my government’s expenditure on the monuments dedicated to our Dalit icons, to see the devotion and reverence with which the crowds have converged here today from different corners of the state,’ she said.

‘Let me also tell them that since there is an entry fee to these monuments, the day is not far when the gate money will cover the costs incurred on them,’ she said.

source: http://www.in.news.yahoo.com / IANS – Indo Asian News Service / Sunday October 09th, 2011