Times of India: Lucknow: Thursday, July 17, 2014.
Six months
after tendering a response under the Right to Information Act, state women's
commission of Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday rushed to clarify on
Wednesday the "correct" budgetary allocation made to it in the
previous fiscals. The reportage of error, however, could only be made after
chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had to field questions from media about the
state's alleged budget cut towards the state women commission (SWC) and had to
face sharp attacks about his love for luxury cars by opposition parties.
In response
to an RTI query filed by activist Urvashi Sharma in December last year, the
public information officer of SWC, in January 2014, said the budget allocation
to SWC was Rs 6.52 crore in 2011-12, while in 2012-13, the RTI response said,
the figure fell to Rs 5.22 crore. In 2013-14, the funds to SWC appear to have
faced a sharp cut, getting reduced to Rs 2.45 crore.
The matter
came to a head when opposition parties BJP and BSP began linking the sharp cut
in the budget of SWC to the Samajwadi Party government's insensitivity towards
women's safety. BSP chief Mayawati reacted to the budgetary cut saying it was
proof the SP government did not regard women's safety as a priority issue and
added that law and order had touched a new low under Akhilesh, while BJP's
state chief Laxmikant Bajpayi also said it was shameful the SP government was
choosing to direct government funds on strengthening the CM's fleet of cars,
instead.
Dismissing as
baseless allegations of budget cut, Akhilesh on Wednesday clarified the fund
allocation to SWC had, in fact, been increased in the current fiscal. Shortly
after his statement, the state government rushed to rectify its alleged
"clerical error" adding that correct information had also been
supplied to Sharma, who had raised the query earlier. Speaking to TOI, office
superintendent at SWC, A K Gupta said "as a result of a clerical error, an
extra zero was added to the 2011-12 figures, making the figure read as 5.10
crore instead of Rs 51 lakh. In 2012-13, the same mistake caused Rs 41.66 lakh to
be mistyped as Rs 4.16 crore."
By afternoon,
apart from sending a clarification to Sharma, which she confirmed she had
received, the government spokesperson also released the budgetary allocation to
SWC in the last three years. The allocation for two consecutive years, 2011-12
and 2012-13 was revised as Rs 2.62 crore, while funds for 2013-14 were revised
and shown as Rs 2.73 crore.
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