Akhilesh asks PM for subsidies for Maha Kumbh

Lucknow, Nov 23: Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday, asking him for subsidised food grain, kerosene and LPG for the Allahabad Maha Kumbh, which will be held from January to March next year. Inflation and slashing the subsidy on LPG cylinders is likely to affect the Maha Kumbh as the central government has decided to provide essential commodities to visitors at the religious congregation at market rates.A decision to this effect was communicated to the state government this week, after which Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday, asking him for subsidised food grain, kerosene and LPG for the Maha Kumbh.The chief minister added that these could lead to "unrest in the Kumbh Mela area and law and order issues".In his two-page letter to the prime minister, Akhilesh Yadav said that in the last Maha Kumbh held in Allahabad in 2001, the union government had provided food grain, kerosene and LPG at subsidised rates to akhaaras, religious volunteers, social workers, government employees and security forces deployed at the mela.Yadav requested the prime minister for 16,200 tonnes of wheat and 9,600 tonnes of rice at Below Poverty Line rates and 13,200 kilo-litres of kerosene at subsidised rates for the Maha Kumbh.