Centre selects UP to launch scheme

The Union government will take the on-going political war with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati right into the latter’s home turf through a populist pro-Dalit scheme. The ambitious scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana — aims at bringing good roads, schools, clean water, health services and power to one in every nine village, that has more than 40 per cent SC population. But a fourth of the chosen villages — meaning 17,000 — are in Mayawati’s UP, which already has an Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojana that Mayawati takes pride in. A clash to take credit is thus on the cards, as the Congress makes a fresh bid to reclaim UP’s Dalits, once part of its rainbow coalition. “The scheme is coming too close to elections to expect it to break much ice on the ground. It may just amount to scoring political points,” says a... [read full story]