By IANS,
Lucknow: A day after a court slammed her government’s inaction over the two-week-old agitation by the Jat community demanding quota in government jobs, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Saturday accused the central government of not being serious on resolving the issue.
Addressing a press conference here, Mayawati sought to take the credit for removing the agitators blocking railway tracks in some western parts of the state, where train services were hit ever since the agitation started March 5.
“We did not waste time in getting the railway tracks cleared on Friday evening, shortly after the Allahabad High Court issued directives in that regard, even though no support was forthcoming from the central government from which we sought 50 companies of paramilitary forces,” the chief minister said.
“In the absence of central forces, we managed to deploy police and ensured restoration of order on railway tracks,” she said.
Accusing the central government of not being serious on resolving the issue, she said: “If the centre had any serious intention to sort out the whole issue, which was within its jurisdiction only, then it would have taken the state government in the loop.”
“The state was not empowered to take any decision on the demand of the Jats, otherwise the issue would not have been allowed to linger on,” she said.
Claiming that her government was concerned about the issue, she urged the central government to “initiate immediate steps that would show that it was actually sensitive towards the long-pending demand of the Jat community”.
“I have rushed one of my cabinet ministers with principal home secretary and state director general of police to hold talks with agitators to prevent any fresh demonstration that would cause inconvenience to common people,” she said.