Akhilesh Yadav a “swordless’ Tipu Sultan: Maurya

Lucknow: Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly Swami Prasad Maurya today described chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as a “sword less Tipu Sultan” and charged him with “betraying” people, especially the youth.

“Tipu (chief minister’s pet name) had become sultan but the sword has gone into the hands of those from Rampur (parliamentary affairs minister Azam Khan),” Maurya said while initiating debate on the budget for 2016-2017 in the state Assembly.

Referring to the promises made in the SP manifesto, Maurya said they have been forgotten.

“The unemployment allowance promise has been thrown in the waste paper basket, distribution of laptops and the promise to give tablets and two sarees to poor women have been forgotten,” Maurya said.

Maurya questioned the relevance of bringing such a big budget when the government has not been able to fully utilise the past three budgets as has been mentioned in the CAG report.

BJP’s Suresh Khanna presented statistics to “reject” government’s claims that Centre was not extending full support to the state and said that while talking about the Lucknow metro project, the chief minister has never mentioned the monetary help by the Centre for it.

Congress’ Pradip Mathur said though the chief minister’s intentions appear to be okay, there are many “loopholes” in the dreams presented through the budget.

Dalbir Singh of RLD demanded raising of legislators’ pension and development funds.