UPA misleading country on Bundelkhand package: BSP

NEW DELHI: BSP members today said the UPA government is misleading the country on the Bundelkhand package, as its net size is only about one-third of Rs 7,266 crore being projected by the Centre.

Insisting that the package was of Rs 7,266 crore, the government, however, admitted that a few complaints have been received regarding implementation of the approved projects in Bundelkhand region covering parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

"The complaints mainly pertain to lack of adequate transparency in the tendering process, not following the normal process in award of work...inferior quality of work in some of the projects...," Minister of Planning Ashwani Kumar told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

The Centre had approved the special package for implementing drought mitigation strategies in the region over three years starting from 2009-10.

"We have approved a Rs 7,266 crore special package. An additional central assistance of Rs 200 crore was given to provide drinking water in the region," Kumar said.

But, BSP members said the central assistance under the package was far less than Rs 7,266 crore since this included central government programmes like MNREGA and RKVY.

The minister did not agree with the BSP members and noisy scenes erupted when BJP members too joined the issue. The House was then adjourned for 10 minutes.