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Provoked by the scathing criticism from different quarters on her refusal to implement the Right to Education Act in the country's most populous and poorly literate state, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Monday suddenly seemed to rise to the occasion by claiming that she never meant to oppose education.
"Promoting education was very close to her heart and she had always accorded top priority to education," UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told a press conference in Lucknow on Monday evening, while reiterating Mayawati's demand for total funding of the cost to be incurred on implementation of the Right to Education Act.
"It was extremely unfortunate that the chief minister 's expression of her government's inability to bear the financial burden arising on account of the implementation of the new enactment has been miscontrued and misrepresented."
Without taking names of her critics including that of Union Human Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal who had made certain scathing remarks against her on the issue, Singh sought to emphatically point out, "even those occupying significant positions at the top had not cared to understand that she simply wanted to make the union government understand it was not pragmatic on the their part to expect the states to bear the financial burden arising on that account."
According to him, it was not just the UP CM who had raised the issue before the centre; similar letters were sent by the state governments of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Bihar, seeking additional financial support of the centre for executing the provisions of the RTE Act"
He said, "the UP chief minister never refused to implement the new new Act. All that she had sought was additional financial support." Singh said, "through her letter dated April 3, to the prime minister, she simply sought to reiterate what she had done earlier through a similar letter dated October 26, 2009-seeking entire funding of the burden by the union government."
Singh sought to add, "the UP chief minister has expressed her deep displeasure over the confusion that was being spread by her political adversaries only with a view to maligning her image." He was of the view, "in fact, the UP CM has always given due importance to the issue of education, for which her government has remained committed and finds it unfortunate that people occupying key positions at the centre were trying to make the all important issue utterly trivial."
As if to buttress his claim, he went on to add,"it was solely on account of her deep concern for education that shortly after assuming power for the fourth time in May 2007, she ordered recruitment of as many as 88, 000 teachers, to fill the long pending vacancies of teachers in government run educational institutions. As many as 66, 000 new teachers had already been appointed so far, he confirmed.