Mulayam in dock over grant to his brother's college

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav''s generous Rs 34.5 core aid to his brother managed degree college has come under the judicial scanner. The Supreme Court on Friday today issued notice to Samajwadi Party chief Yadav, state''s chief secretary, finance secretary and education secretary on a petition challenging the whopping grant to Chaudhary Charan Singh Degree College at Hewra, managed by his brother Shiv Pal Singh Yadav who is also a minister in Yadav cabinet.
A Bench of Justices N Santosh Hegde, S B Sinha and B N Srikrishna directed the authorities to respond to the special leave petition filed by one Mahendra Nath Rai.
Challenging the Allahabad High Court which had rejected his public interest litigation, Rai said the dismissal had come despite the fact that the HC had certain undisputed fact before it.
The undisputed fact was that a sum of Rs 34.5 crores was sanctioned to the institution from the contingency fund of the Uttar Pradesh government in two instalments - Rs 7.43 crores on February 12, 2004 and Rs 27.07 crores on April 6, 2004.
Similar largess were given to the same institution during the earlier tenure of Yadav as Chief Minister,Rai said, adding Yadav had given Rs 10 lakhs to the same degree college in March 1994 from his discretionary fund.
Many MLAs and MPs belonging to the ruling Samajwadi Party had also given "considerable amount" to the same institution from the local area development funds originally meant for development of their constituencies, Rai added.
However, the HC had dismissed Rai''s PIL on the ground that the amount taken out from the contingency fund had received legislative sanction by the UP Appropriation (Supplementary) Act, 2004 and that this Act has not been challenged by the petitioner.