Brinda for independent probe
LUCKNOW: Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Wednesday demanded an inquiry by an independent agency into the Barabanki incident.
“Cops set a woman afire in the police station. A probe by police officers in the case would be biased,” she said after attending a meeting of the party leaders in the state unit office.
She also felt the CBI probe into the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh should be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
The Left parties would launch an agitation against the NDA government at the centre on July 20, the CPI(M) leader disclosed.
Later, she met chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and handed over a memorandum, demanding a curb on a demolition drive launched by the district administration in Noida where residential colonies and slums located on the bank of the Hindon river were razed.
The district administration had issued notices to the residents directing them to vacate the area, she claimed, further alleging that the land was handed over to private builders.
The chief minister assured Karat that no houses would be demolished and that the district administration had been told to not send a demolition squad there. The state government would rehabilitate those who were evicted, he assured the CPI(M) leader.
She also urged the chief minister to withadraw the cases lodged against 150 labourers during a trade union strike in February 2013. Talking to journalists, Karat said Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh insulted Rabindranath Tagore by demanding the word ‘adhinayak’ be omitted from the national anthem.
BJP WOMEN WING CHIEF SEEKS COPS’ ARREST
Meanwhile, the BJP national women wing chief Vijaya Rahatkar, who arrived in the state on Wednesday, slammed the UP government over rising crimes against women.
Rahatkar, who also visited the Barabanki police station where the woman was allegedly burnt, said that the victim’s dying declaration was ‘proof enough of the complicity’ of the policemen. She met DGP Jagmohan Yadav and submitted a memorandum demanding arrest of the accused cops before visiting the victim’s village in Barabanki.