By IANS
Ballia (Uttar Pradesh) : Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has assured the 22,000 police constables sacked by his bete noire and current Chief Minister Mayawati that he will reinstate them with arrears in wages.
“Let me return to power, I will ensure that all the constables fired by Mayawati are reinstated with full back wages and other admissible arrears,” Mulayam Singh has been declaring at a spate of election rallies in various parts of Ballia parliamentary constituency in the far-eastern corner of Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam Singh has been campaigning for Neeraj Shekhar, son of former prime minister Chandrashekhar, whose demise has caused a by-election for the Ballia seat, held for decades together by the late political stalwart. The seat is being hotly contested by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The constables were dismissed summarily two months ago on the charge that the recruitment process was violated and procedures were fudged.
He attributed the sacking of constables on such a large scale to “Mayawati’s desperation to make money” through fresh recruitments. Mulayam said: “The termination of services of such a large number of policemen recruited under my regime speaks volumes of Mayawati’s political vendetta.”
“Unfortunately, they were poor, innocent souls who were being made victims in the bargain,” he lamented.
Accusing Mayawati of indulging in “blatant money making”, Mulayam Singh told a series of poll rallies in Ballia: “corruption has acquired a different dimension and an all-time new high under Mayawati’s regime”.
He alleged, “The dismissal of cops was done only with a view to minting money through fresh recruitments that would shortly be made by the present government.”