By IANS,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Monday said that her government was more alert against terror strikes than the central government.
“Despite repeated terrorist strikes in different parts of the country, including Delhi, successive Congress-led governments have failed to take effective measures to contain the menace of terrorism,” Mayawati told a press conference here, while condemning Saturday’s terror attack in Pune.
“It is high time the centre rose to the occasion and came up with a concrete plan to bring an end to rising terrorism in the country,” she said.
Claiming that her government had always been more alert in taking adequate steps against acts of terror, Mayawati said that no sooner than Home Minister P. Chidabaram declared Kanpur and Indore as highly vulnerable to terrorist strikes, she immediately told the additional director of police (law and order) to rush to Kanpur and personally take stock of the situation there.
“Apart from gathering local intelligence, the ADG also issued instructions to local officials on the drill to be followed as a precautionary measure. Simultaneously, we also sounded an alert in all other vulnerable places including Ayodhya where security was suitably beefed up.”
Attacking the prolonged Congress rule at the centre as well in many states, she said even though the party had ruled in the states as well as nationally for most part of the 62 years of independent India, it had failed to carry out adequate development or to affect any improvement in the lot of downtrodden Dalits.
“It was for the mission to fight for Dalits and other downtrodden castes that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was born on April 14, 1984, the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.”
She, however, noted that the party was unable to celebrate the completion of 25 years of its existence in 2009 because of the then impending Lok Sabha elections. “As such, we have decided to observe the party’s silver jubilee this year March 15, the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram”, she said.
The celebration would be marked with a massive party workers’ rally in Lucknow, she added.