LUCKNOW: Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Chief Minister of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, reiterated that the federal government’s proposal to extend the reservation policy for the next 10 years would be enforced and there would be no compromise on this.
Talking to newsmen here, the chief minister said that the proposal would not be withdrawn regardless of the current agitation by a section of the students.
Appealing to the students not to indulge in violence, the chief minister warned that the government might be forced to take strict action against them, adding that the stir had been engineered only by a section of the students. ~ Deputy Prime Minister, Devi Lal, however, addressing a public meeting at Rohtak in neighboring Haryana said he would agitate, both inside the cabinet and outside, for adoption of economic basis as the criteria for reservation.
Meanwhile, the anti-reservationists have given a call for surrounding the Uttar Pradesh assembly on Monday and urged the public service commission to postpone all competitive examinations till the reservation issue is decided. Statement on the agitation and the ruling Janata Dal and its allies vociferously demanding dismissal of the Farooq Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Some members also demanded dismissal of the Congress (I) governments in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh as the law and order machinery had “broken down” in the two states. They also wanted immediate dissolution of the Delhi Metropolitan Council and Municipal Corporation of Delhi. NEW DELHE Incidents of rail blocking, violence and arson by anti-reservationists were reported from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh while a red alert was sounded in Bihar in view of a strike in the state capital.
The agitation took an alarming turn in U.P. when the agitationists went on a rampage smashing and setting ablaze vehicles and stalling road and rail traffic. Movements of trains was disrupted in several parts of the state where anti-reservation activists squatted on tracks. Paramilitary forces were deployed in Patna in view of a strike.
Police fired in the air and baton charged a crowd to control a stone pelting crowd involving students and some residents at Hathras in northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The student was killed in Meerut in firing by two students that followed an argument over the blockade issue.
Agitators detained the Khurja Meerut passenger train at Bulandhshar and set fire to a coach. However, no casualty was reported, a northern railway release said.
In Sambalpur in eastern state of Orissa, hundreds of students staged a demonstration.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 29, 1989
