Why has BJP failed to end paper leaks in UP?

New Delhi : The Congress on Thursday questioned the BJP over the issue of examination paper leaks in Uttar Pradesh and asked why the ruling party has failed to end this “scourge”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he heads to Uttar Pradesh for poll rallies. “What happened to the Rs. 1600 crores that were supposedly spent on cleaning the Yamuna? Why does UP have twenty times less doctors than the rest of India? Why has the BJP failed to end the scourge of paper leaks in UP?” Ramesh said in a post on X.

Elaborating on what he said were ‘jumla details”, Ramesh said, “Yesterday, the Municipal Corporations of Agra and Mathura-Vrindavan were fined more than Rs. 65 crore by the National Green Tribunal for discharging untreated sewage into the river Yamuna.” The NGT observed that the two civic bodies had “flagrantly violated” rules regarding the discharge of pollution, and that the Agra civil body was operating two sewage treatment plants without the required permissions, Ramesh said.

“Simultaneously, the Supreme Court was forced to intervene in Agra and order that silt, sludge and filth from the river be cleaned immediately, after hearing a petition from a local NGO. Every few years, the BJP reiterates their commitment to cleaning the Yamuna but the river is only getting filthier,” he said. In the last nine years, the central government has spent more than Rs 1,600 crore on cleaning efforts under the Namami Gange Yojana but it is unclear where these funds are ending up, Ramesh alleged.

“If the Yamuna is now more polluted than it was before, has the BJP made any effort at all to clean the river? Why does it take the rap of the NGT and the Supreme Court to get the BJP to undertake real cleaning efforts?” he said. Ramesh further said Uttar Pradesh is suffering from a severe shortage of trained doctors. “The state has only 1 doctor for every 18,000 residents, almost twenty times less than the national average of 1 doctor per 1000 people. Out of 19,000 sanctioned doctors’ posts, only 12,000 are currently filled, and the state needs an additional 33,000 specialist doctors,” he said. Recently, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission released vacancies for 400 doctors but only 40 posts could be filled, he noted.

“Why has the quality of public healthcare in UP declined so precipitously under BJP rule? In the Congress Nyay Patra, we have committed to filling all vacant posts in public health institutions within three years of coming to power,” the Congress general secretary said.