UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to have a strong streak of generosity in him.
UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav seems to have a strong streak of generosity in him. According to the response to a RTI query, the CM has disbursed around Rs 300 crore from his discretionary fund to those who needed treatment, to families of those who were murdered, victims of accidents, those who committed suicide or died an untimely death, and also police and Army personnel who died on duty.
The amount given away by Mr Akhilesh Yadav is three times more than what his predecessor, Ms Mayawati, had distributed in her five-year tenure from 2007 to 2012.
The matter was also raised in the state Assembly on Tuesday when Suresh Khanna of the BJP wanted to know why the family of DSP Zia-ul-Haq was given Rs 45 lakh as compensation while another police official who died in similar circumstances in Bareilly was not adequately compensated.
The RTI response shows that Mr Yadav spent Rs 86.26 crore from the CM’s Distress Relief Fund, normally used to provide help during natural calamities and other disasters. This included Rs 25 crore that the government gave for the 2013 Uttarakhand floods and Rs 20 crore for Jammu and Kashmir floods in 2014.
From the Discretionary Fund that is provided for in the budget, the CM gave Rs 40 lakh to the family of Zia-ul-Haq, the DSP who was killed in mob violence in Pratapgarh in 2013. The government also gave Rs 40 lakh to the families of the village head Nanhe Lal and his brother Suresh who were also killed in the violence along with the DSP.
The chief minister gave Rs 30 lakh to Suman Lata, wife of journalist Jogendra Singh, who was allegedly set on fire by UP minister Ram Murti Varma, in Shahjahanpur.
Among journalists, Mr Akhilesh Yadav has given Rs 20 lakh to the family of Amresh Mishra, a journalist in Pratapgarh who had died in a road accident.
Besides, a sum of Rs 20 lakh each was given to the mother of Tahir Abbas, a journalist who had an untimely death, and also the wife of another journalist, Manoj Srivastava, who died young.
