Investors' summit waste of public money, says Mayawati

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati has termed the much-publicized Investors’ Summit in Lucknow as a “waste of public money.”

In a statement issued here on Friday, Ms Mayawati said that the state government had spent huge amounts of money on the summit to divert public attention and hide its failures.

“The results of such summits in previous years have been dismal but the BJP continues to waste money on such events. Public money should be spent on important issues related to the welfare of the poor, farmers and unemployed youths. There are issues like law and order, inflation and unemployment but instead of addressing them, the BJP is squandering money on hosting summits,” the statement said.

Ms Mayawati said that private investors were not likely to invest their money in a state where the law and order was far from satisfactory. “The BJP is promoting a false propaganda that MoUs worth several crores of rupees have been signed. The truth will be out in the open in the coming months when no one actually turns up”, she said.

Meanwhile, a senior district official told reporters on Friday that the  beautification of Lucknow for the two-day Investors’ Summit had cost over Rs 66 crores. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation had spent Rs 24.25 crores for the event.