Lucknow, Oct 28 (IANS): Chief Minister Mayawati Friday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, complaining against union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh who has alleged large scale irregularities in the execution of the rural jobs scheme in Uttar Pradesh.

Saying that Ramesh lacked understanding of fiscal federalism, she sought to draw Singh's attention to the minister's bid to generalise information on projects inplemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that he had gathered from a Chitrakoot-based NGO.

"It was strange that the union minister chose to draw his conclusions on the basis of feedback limited to just seven districts in a state which has as many as 75 districts," state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said reading out the letter at a press conference here on behalf of Mayawati.

"Even with reference to the seven districts mentioned in the union minister's letter, the chief minister has clarified that departmental proceedings have already been initiated against six chief development officers (CDOs), seven project directors, 28 block development officers (BDO) and more than 40 field level officials."

Singh said: "These include 27 Class I officers, 38 Class II officers and 69 Class III employees together with 236 field level smaller functionaries. As many as 71 FIRs have been lodged with the police in all cases of financial irregularities and a sum of Rs.54 lakh has been recovered from the culprits while proceedings for further recovery of Rs.1.31 crore are under way."

Ramesh had sent a letter to Mayawati Monday regarding the implementation of MGNREGS.

Reacting sharply to Ramesh's threat to stop funds to Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati stated in her letter: "It only highlights his lack of understanding of fiscal federalism inherent in our constitution."

She has urged the prime minister to "apprise the union minister of centre-state fiscal arrangements provided in the constitution so that he could realise that the funds released to the state for various schemes such as MGNREGS are not a largesse bestowed by the centre but a firm part of the revenue sharing mechanism under our federal system." She accused Ramesh of having a "colonial hangover".

Vehemently refuting Ramesh's charge of "substandard work", she hit out at him adding: "It is quite obvious that Jairam Ramesh has a preconceived agenda and has arrived at conclusions without taking cognisance of the various steps taken by my government for ensuring an effective implementation of the said scheme".

Mayawati has further sought to point out that Uttar Pradesh was among the first few states in the country "to not only enhance the minimum wage with effect from 2008 but to also build a system of payment of wages only through banks or post-offices, only with a view to preventing any pilferage".