Mayawati b'day gift: Rs 7k cr welfare schemes

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today celebrated her 54th birthday without the trademark pomp and splendour announcing welfare schemes for the poor and development projects worth over Rs 7,300 crore.

Mayawati, who observed her birthday as 'Jan Kalyankari Diwas' (people's welfare day), utilised the occasion to still nurse her prime ministerial ambitions and said how some political parties formed an "unethical alliance" to ensure that the daughter of a Dalit did not head the Union Government after last year's Lok Sabha elections.

At a function at her official residence, the BSP supremo also launched the "UP Chief Minister Mahamaya Garib Arthik Sahayta Yojna" for those deprived of benefits under the BPL and Antodaya schemes.

Mayawati said under the scheme the beneficiaries would be paid Rs 300 per month directly in six monthly instalments.

"The first phase of the scheme would cover 30 lakh beneficiaries and the remaining would be taken up in the next phase," she said.

The Chief Minister said she had been requesting the Centre for granting a special economic package to the state ever since she took over the charge in 2007 and rued that her efforts have not brought the state a "single penny".

The state government has been implementing welfare schemes by generating its own resources, she said.

She also released the Hindi and English version of the fifth volume of her book titled "A travelogue of my struggle- ridden life and BSP movement".

In the book, Mayawati said the opposition joined forces in  the Lok Sabha elections so that a Dalit leader like her does not occupy the chair of country's Prime Minister.