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Kalyan Singh meets Vajpayee, Sinha to plead for financial assistance

The serious financial crisis gripping Uttar Pradesh for the past few months came up for review when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held a joint meeting with state chief minister Kalyan Singh and Union Finance Minister Yaswhant Sinha in New Delhi today.

The chief minister, during the half-an-hour long meeting sought a financial package, including permission to raise a market loan of Rs 4 billion, to tide over the unprecedented crisis.

Highly placed sources said the state government has also demanded an immediate release of Rs 3 billion which was approved by the Planning Commission under the special hill development programme. Out of that earmarked sum, only Rs 720 million has been released so far.

Asked about the prime minister's response to the state government demands, Singh told newspersons that his response was ''highly postive and encouraging''.

Faced with severe financial crunch, the chief minister had rushed to the capital along with members of his cabinet sub-committee on economic affairs last evening and met Vajpayee.

During the last evening meeting which was attended by Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party president Narendra Singh, Loktantrik Congress president Naresh Aggarwal, state's parliamentary affairs minister Hukum Singh and urban development minister Lalji Tandon, the prime minister had decided to hold a joint meeting with the union finance minister and Kalyan Singh's committee members this morning.

The sources said the state government also impressed upon the Centre that the Reserve Bank of India should permit special ways and means to advance money to Uttar Pradesh on a priority basis in the wake of the current crisis.

Describing the current crisis as a by-product of ill-governance of the non-BJP governments during last ten years, Singh solicited the Centre's support in a big way to tackle the crisis. He stressed for clearance of a number of proposals, including levy of some taxes, pending with the Centre.

Singh, who refused to elaborate proposals and demands, said that he was hopeful of getting financial relief as Vajpayee gave a patient hearing and understood the state's problems in coping up with the situation.

UNI

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