Online edition of India’s National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 02, 2008
BSPβs βjeep jathasβ from October 1
VIZIANAGARAM: Bahujan Samaj Party at its representativesβ meeting here on Wednesday decide to hold βjanahita chaitanya sabhasβ shortly and also βjeep jathasβ from October 1 with an objective to enlighten people on price rise, nuclear deal and anti-people policies of the UPA government, L. Raja Rao, Paderu MLA, who participated in the meeting, said in a release.
UP steps up security for festivals
Special Correspondent
| Rapid Action Force deployed in six districts |
Anti-sabotage teams of the police activated
PAC also place at disposal of district police chief
LUCKNOW: Rapid Action Force has been deployed in six districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Kanpur and Meerut, and anti-sabotage teams of the police have been activated in view of the festivals of Id-ul-Fitr, Navratras and Durga Puja.
Id will be celebrated in the State on Thursday. Strict directives have been given to the district police chiefs and I-Gs to keep a watch on rumour-mongers and mischief-makers.
Two companies of RAF have been deployed in Lucknow and one each in Kanpur, Aligarh, Moradabad, Meerut, Allahabad and Varanasi.
ADG (Law and Order) Brij Lal said here on Wednesday that in addition to the eight companies of RAF, 46 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary have also been placed at the disposal of the district police chiefs with 1,000 personnel from the police training centres also requisitioned for maintaining law and order.
Mr. Lal said 22 companies of PAC have been kept in reserve for sensitive districts: Azamgarh, Aligarh, Meerut, Moradabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Mau, Basti, Bahraich, Varanasi and Allahabad. Strict vigil would be kept at places where Id prayers are offered and where the images of Goddess Durga are kept during the Puja festivities.
The security measures were detailed to the zonal I-Gs by the DGP, Vikram Singh, and the ADG (Law and Order) by video conference. Mr. Lal said βquick reaction teamsβ of the police have been kept in reserve for deployment in areas with mixed population.
Muslims tilt towards BSP
Muslims in Uttar Pradesh appear to have heavily voted for the Bahujan SamajParty(BSP), deserting the ruling Samajwadi Party, assembly election trends Friday showed.
According to political pundits, BSP had made major gains in 22 constituencies heavily populated by Muslims — 12 more than in the outgoing assembly.
The Samajwadi Party was in the lead only in 13 such constituencies, 11 less than the previous election in 2002.
Political analysts attributed Mayawati’s gains in Uttar Pradesh, where her party could end up with 207seats in the 403-member assembly, to Muslims and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on top of the existing Original Inhabitants of Jambudvipa, that is the Great Prabuddha Bharath support base.
“It looks like Mayawati has made considerable gains in places where Muslims and non-Yadav OBCs dominate. A smaller percent of Brahmins have also helped BSP,” Congress general secretary B.K. Hariprasad told IANS.
BSP rubbishes SP charge on terrorising Muslims
LUCKNOW: BSP on Sunday reacted sharply to Samajwadi Party allegations that Uttar Pradesh police harassed and terrorised Muslims in Azamgarh and sought to pass the blame to Congress and UPA government at the Centre.
“Police from Delhi where there is a Congress government had come here earlier this week and requested help to carry out searches and if anyone has to be blamed it should be the Congress and UPA government,” a BSP spokesman here said.
The Samajwadi Party had charged the BSP government with harassing and terrorising Muslims in Azamgarh in the name of searching terrorists.
Terming the SP’s allegations as a bundle of lies and irresponsible statements, the spokesman said they were aimed at provoking Muslims.
“The fact is that, ever since the it had sided with the UPA government over the nuclear deal issue, both the SP and the Congress have lost confidence of Muslims and had been resorting to gimmicks to woo them,” he claimed.
Interests of all sections of society including Muslims are safe under the current government, he said, adding that Muslims are aware the SP “designs”.
The spokesman maintained that there was no additional deployment of security personnel in Azamgarh.