‘UPCC team to meet finance panel team today’

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ said a delegation of the UP Congress will meet the 15th finance commission team visiting Lucknow on Monday.

The Congress delegation will ask the team extra grants for poverty alleviation and improvement in Human Development Index in the state.

The senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and the UPCC spokesperson, Dr Anup Patel, will meet the commission, said Kumar at a press conference at the UPCC headquarters in Lucknow

› Since the farmers in the state have been facing the wrath of nature, the Congress will demand the commission for ways to insulate farmers from the natural calamities AJAY KUMAR ‘LALLU’, UPCC president

on Sunday.

He said: “The fiscal deficit in the state has breached the finance commission standards of 3% in Uttar Pradesh. In 2018-19, the fiscal deficit in the state touched 3.1%. The state is the most populous among all the country and by 2018’s Human Index Development, the state was on 29th rung and at the same time, 20% of poor people of the country reside in UP. So, for poverty alleviation and bettering human development, we will seek more grants for UP.”

Kumar also said that on one hand a vast tract of land in eastern UP suffered floods while another region Bundelkhand is suffering from drought.

“Since the farmers in the state have been facing the wrath of nature, the Congress will demand the commission for ways to insulate farmers from the natural calamities,” said Kumar.

“Ahead of the commission’s visit, we also demand the commission to increase grants for the areas like education, water supply, urban development, rural development, transport, health and family welfare, policing, irrigation, and flood control,” he said.