'27 saal, UP behaal': Sheila attacks Akhilesh govt, says UP still stuck in time

Lucknow: Talking about their slogan "27 saal, UP behaal (27 year but UP in dire straits)" in run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Congress chief ministerial candidate Shiela Dikshit has said the slogan has big impact and the situation of Uttar Pradesh is actually precarious.

"UP is considered as the biggest state of India, but as far as development, jobs, infrastructure and facilities to the farmers and power supply are concerned, what type of development have taken place here," she sought to know.

"Uttar Pradesh is exactly there, where it was 27 years back. Time has come to provide services to the people so that the state can grow and become number one in development," she told reporters.

When asked about her promises to the people of the state, she said "We will talk about our promises in our manifesto, but what I could understand so far that the governance in the state is very poor and the law and order situation is in such a bad shape that if you start talking about it, it will send you in tizzy."

"I met the raped mother-daughter duo yesterday, and it was so painful to note that in a big state like UP such an incident takes place and nobody is aware about it," she added.

Lambasting the Akhilesh Yadav government for the precarious law and order situation, Dikshit said, "The first priority of any government is to make their citizens feel safe and secure in the state, but the UP government is unable to do it."

When asked about her development model for Delhi and what her vision was for UP, she said, "In the past 15 years, Delhi has not only become India's best, but one of the best cities of the world. Our effort will be to bring UP at least at number 1 or 2 position in Indian. It will definitely take time, but we will have to plan and work together. Our manifesto will divulge the details."

"Our promise is that we will work to put UP at number 1 place as far as development is concerned," she added.

When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jibe at the so-called "cow protectors", she said, "BJP people worship cow, but they don't protect cows. We should open cowsheds at several places for stray cows for their protection. Protecting cow is everybody's duty.