Lucknow: On the eve of the Ayodhya
title suits verdict by the Allahabad High Court, Chief
Minister Mayawati tonight complained that enough security
forces had not been made available to UP and the Centre would
be fully responsible if any untoward incident took place.
"The state demanded 642 companies of the central
forces against which only 52 companies had been allocated
which is insufficient and if anything untowards happens then
the Centre would be fully responsible," she said in a
statement read out to reporters by state Cabinet Secretary
Shashank Shekhar Singh.
Singh said the Chief Minister had written to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh to make available enough central
forces to deal with any eventuality in the aftermath of the
verdict to be pronounced by the Lucknow bench of the Allhabad
High Court tomorrow.
"Centre has not taken our request seriously," Mayawati
said.
Commenting on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram`s
statement that UP had a strength of 1.90 lakh personnel, which
was sufficient to deal with the situation, she said this
was not true.
Stressing that the demand for additional forces was
justified, Mayawati said that to conduct free and fair
elections in 2007, Centre had allocated 700 companies of para
military forces.
"This time also we needed adequate number of forces to
deal with the situation. And if something happes for lack of
force, Centre will be responsible", Mayawati said.
"To tackle possible communal tension, the government
demanded 458 companies of central forces on August 6, besides
another 143 companies were demanded for the security of
disputed site at Ayodhya on September 1," she said.
Mayawati said that Director General of Police (DGP)
personally met Union Home secretary on August 9 to press for
additional forces. The state government also made a
representation to Governor BL Joshi on Aug 12 urging him to
request the Centre for more forces.
Besides, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also
requested through separate letters to him on Sep 1 and Sep 13
respectively to provide the forces to maintain law and order
post-Ayodhya title suit judgement, she said.
"But nothing was done...this shows its insensitivity
to deal such a serious matter", she said.
Asked whether the state government was apprehensive
about law and order problems, Singh said that government
had taken several steps to deal with the situation.
PTI
