JANTA DAL United national president Sharad Yadav clearly revealed that his party was not going to offer freebies to the electorate unlike other political parties to garner votes and support in the assembly elections. He said the party would spend each penny of the revenue collected on the development programmes of the state and his main thrust would be investment in the infrastructure of the state. Sharad Yadav was speaking to the media here in Lucknow on Tuesday while releasing his party’s political manifesto.

Yadav told the pressmen converged on the occasion that there was no shortage of water in the state. “Uttar Pradesh has perennial rivers like the Ganges and the Yamuna still the cities and villages face drought like situation. There have been plenty of water resources in the state; it is just the management of water resources, which needs to be done to improve the situation. We need to give attention to our irrigation projects for which we need to construct canals so that water can reach up to the fields and good harvest can be yielded by the farmers,” said Yadav.

Yadav said if his party was voted to power in the state then within six months time all mafia would be put behind the bars. “As we have formed SAP (special auxiliary police) in Bihar by inducting some 70,000 retired personnel from the armed forces to improve law and order situation there, we would do it here also on similar pattern to improve the law and order situation in the state,” Yadav added.

He also said how his party opposed the Central government move to push FDI in the retail market. Yadav said he was thankful to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for extending her support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in opposing the FDI. Yadav who is also convener of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said the move helped some 22 crore small vendors and traders who would have become jobless after the opening of markets to the retail giants like the Wal-Mart.

He said Janta Dal United would work hard in improving the standard of education in government schools. There has been a lot to do in the area of primary education and health, especially in the rural areas of the state. Yadav also lambasted Congress and his law minister Salman Khurshid for promising a quota under the sub-quota for minorities and questioned how Khurshid can give reservation of 9 percent to Muslims when the Indian Constitution doesn’t allow any provision to be made on the basis of religion.