Title - Akhilesh backs project in Sonia seat

Lucknow : Mayawati wouldn't oblige, but Akhilesh is willing. Never mind the projects will be on Sonia Gandhi's turf. The Uttar Pradesh government has given the Rae Bareli district administration the go-ahead to acquire land for a central project to set up a unit of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, reflecting a change from the previous regime's politics of confrontation. The land identified for the project in Lalganj block is barely a kilometre from a railway coach factory the Mayawati government had tried to stall four years ago. The BSP government was also alleged to have scuttled other projects in the Congress chief's parliamentary base on the ground that "the VIP constituency was getting undue importance". But Akhilesh Yadav, the new chief minister, yesterday made it clear his government was ready to allot land even in Rae Bareli if the Centre wanted to set up an AIIMS unit because this would "ultimately benefit the entire state". The comment reflected the confidence of the young leader, whose Samajwadi Party swept to power earlier this year and who is ready to co-operate with the Congress-led central coalition in return for his state's development. Earlier this week, Akhilesh had approached the Prime Minister for a financial package for Uttar Pradesh. The chief minister is also learnt to be favourably disposed towards several other central proposals for Rae Bareli. (See chart) Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier said in Delhi that his ministry was keen on setting up an AIIMS unit in Rae Bareli if the state government was willing to allot land. The Centre had approached the BSP government too, but the Mayawati administration had refused to provide land in Rae Bareli. The Prime Minister's principal secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, recently wrote to Akhilesh, asking if his government was ready to give land for the AIIMS project. The proposed project is in accordance with a report by the Planning Commission's steering committee on health that recommended AIIMS-like institutes in several parts of the country by 2017, including one in Bengal. "We have all along been saying that the state government was committed to providing the best medical care to its people and towards this goal not allowing any political differences to stand in the way," Samajwadi spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said. The go-ahead signal came a couple of days back when the Samajwadi MLA from Sareini, in Rae Bareli, Devendra Pratap Singh, told Akhilesh he had identified about 114 acres in Lalganj. Of the 114 acres, 50.31 acres is with the state government. Local farmers own the rest. The farmers have already submitted a signed petition saying they are ready to hand over their land to the state government, the MLA told reporters. In his report to the Rae Bareli district magistrate, the sub-divisional magistrate of Lalganj has confirmed the farmers would like an AIIMS unit to come up in Lalganj. The proposal had been hanging fire since 2009 when the Mayawati government said it could allot land for the project, but in Bundelkhand, not Rae Bareli. If the AIIMS unit does come up in Lalganj, it would be a boost for Sonia ahead of the 2014 general election. The Congress failed to win even a single Assembly segment in Rae Bareli in the recent state elections. While simmering anger against local leaders is a cause for worry, Congress sources said delayed projects had led to a lot of embarrassment too.