Sonia ready to go to prison for the sake of dev.

Rae Bareli:
Defying Mayawati's attempts to scuttle her plans, Sonia Gandhi today visited her Lok Sabha constituency calling it her "karma bhoomi" and declaring that she is ready to go to jail for the sake of development.

"Rae Bareli and Amethi were the 'karma bhoomi' of Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is also as my 'karma bhoomi' and that of Rahul. Rae Bareli and Amethi are like my home. I want to ask, can anyone prevent me from coming to my home? No one can," she said.

She also took barbs at Chief Minister Mayawati saying like the Rail Coach Factory in her constituency for which land allotment has been cancelled by the state government, there were at least 8 such schemes on which the clearance has come from the Centre but "all the hurdles are here only in Uttar Pradesh".


Asked if she was prepared to go to jail, Gandhi shot back "I am also ready to go to jail".

Unfazed by the administration's apparent attempts to foil her plans for holding a rally today by imposing prohibitory orders, Gandhi flew straight to Fursatganj in a private aircraft skipping Lucknow.

Gandhi, who was cheered by slogan-shouting Congress workers who also garlanded her at some places, said she had planned to come here for the happy occasion of laying of the foundation stone for the Rail Coach Factory. "You know the matter is now before the court and I will not make any comments," she said when asked about the cancellation of the land allotment by the Mayawati government.


On Saturday the district administration had cancelled the land alloted to the proposed coach factory citing the demand from local farmers. But, on a petition from the Railway Ministry yesterday, the Allahabad High Court virtually stayed the order pronouncing status quo on the issue.

Asked how her party planned to face Mayawati's onslaught, she pointed to UPCC President Rita Bahuguna Joshi and some other leaders and said "these people will take care".

Source: www.mid-day.com

Dalits' condition worst in UP, says SC panel

June 12, 2008 18:25 IST, In a virtual snub to the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Thursday said the state had the "worst track record" across the country in terms of atrocities on Dalits.

"Uttar Pradesh continues to be at the top in terms of the number of cases of atrocities against Dalits reported in states across the country. The latest data available with us is for 2006 when the state recorded a whopping 52,827 such cases," chairman of the Commission Buta Singh said.

Singh was leading a three-member delegation which visited Kaanti, a remote Dalit-dominated village in the district that has been in the grip of tension for the last one week over the controversial purchase of a piece of land by a retired police personnel. Singh claimed the depressed classes were being driven to the wall in the state "due to an unsympathetic administration which has scant respect for the constitutional provisions made for the weaker sections".

The former Union minister, who asserted that his visit here was "totally apolitical", however, took potshots at Chief Minister Mayawati, saying "She apparently has no control over the administration and the police as a result of which her proclaimed commitment to the cause of the Dalits was now under scanner."

Strongly condemning the "brutal attack on women, children and old people" in Kaanti on January 7, when an attempt was made to get the land vacated with the help of local police, Singh however maintained that reports of injuries to a number of police personnel in retaliatory violence were "totally false".

Source: www.rediff.com