The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly’s budget session witnessed a robust opposition offensive led by Mata Prasad Pandey. Targeting the government’s handling of a Rs 9 lakh crore-plus debt, acute doctor deficiencies in health services, and unregulated private school fees, Pandey positioned these as emblematic of deeper systemic lapses.
Challenging rosy economic projections, he noted the state’s per capita income at Rs 1.20 lakh trails the national average by nearly half. ‘Such grandstanding is unwarranted,’ he charged, grounding the debate in hard data.
Health sector critiques were particularly vehement: with just 0.37 doctors per thousand population versus WHO norms, patients face endless referrals—even from advanced medical facilities. Pandey advocated scrapping contract-based appointments and halting referral policies outright.
Playfully nudging Health Minister Brijesh Pathak, he remarked, ‘No running from me, but prioritize these matters.’ The assembly burst into laughter.
Advocating regulatory reforms, he called for laws reining in private colleges’ fee escalations. He lampooned Galgotias University’s AI summit blunder—a ‘Made in China’ robot passed off as indigenous—quipping about their fee-gouging and robot hunt, which had the Chief Minister and house in splits.
Reflecting on eroded higher education prestige, once led by Allahabad University, Pandey demanded quality enhancements. He concluded with an emotional plea for Ganga’s purification, decrying its current squalor.
Suresh Khanna, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, voiced initial dissent but accepted the debt statistics, signaling potential for constructive policy discourse amid the session’s charged atmosphere.