By IANS,
Lucknow : The central government must take action against the “growing confrontation” between the people of Maharastra and north Indians in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said Wednesday following the lynching of a youth on a suburban train to Mumbai.
“It is high time the central government rose to the occasion and took appropriate action against the growing confrontation between the people of Maharastra and north Indians living in that state,” Mayawati said in a statement issued here.
Reacting to the killing of a youth from Uttar Pradesh Tuesday night by a group of 10 commuters on the Khopoli-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train, the chief minister said it was amply evident that the steps taken so far had failed. She described it as a matter of “serious concern” that was against the Indian constitution and one that the central and state governments must address.
Mayawati also announced an ex gratia payment of Rs.200,000 to the family of 25-year-old Dharamdev Ramnarain Rai, who worked in a steel manufacturing unit in Khopoli, about 120 km from Mumbai.
Dharamdev was from Goriya Ghat village in east Uttar Pradesh’ Sant Kabir Nagar district and had gone to Mumbai to earn a livelihood only three months ago. He got married about three years ago and was the father of a 15-month-old. His wife was expecting their second child.
According to police in Mumbai, he was with three of his friends when a brawl erupted over window seats. A group of about 10 commuters asked them whether they were ‘bhaiyas’ (the term used to refer to people from Uttar Pradesh). The attack began when the youth replied in the affirmative.
According to his father Ram Narain Rai, a teacher in a local school in Goriya Ghat, Dharamdev was hit on the head with an iron rod and never recovered.