Schoolboy’s abduction was Opposition conspiracy to defame govt, says Pathak

LUCKNOW: Law minister Brijesh Pathak alleged in the state assembly on Tuesday that opposition members were behind the abduction of a school boy from the state capital on Monday to defame the government.

“When the government was celebrating its completion of one year, a student of La Martiniere College was kidnapped by his driver Santosh Yadav yesterday. When the police surrounded a village to get the student released, it was found that it was a conspiracy of the opposition parties to defame the government ,” Pathak alleged.

When opposition members said the allegations were serious and needed a discussion, speaker Hriday Narain Dikshit played down the matter saying, “opposition members cannot indulge in such activity.” The class 11 student was later rescued by the police from Sitapur district.

The issue arose on a day when SP, BSP and Congress MLAs launched a joint attack on the state government on public issues in the state assembly. The opposition members were apparently buoyed by the Samajwadi Party- Bahujan Samaj Party alliance victory in the Lok Sabha bypolls last week. The BJP lost the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats to the Samajwadi Party, which was backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary (SP) led the attack, alleging that when the state government was busy in the first anniversary celebrations of the BJP regime, innocent people were killed in Allahabad.

Countering the opposition attack, parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said the killing was due to personal enmity. There was no law and order issue in the area, he said.

During question hour, Congress MLA Aditi Singh raised the issue of the regularisation of service and hike in salary of the anganwadi workers.

Minister Anupama Jaiswal said the state government had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Agriculture Production Commissioner to submit a report on the anganwari workers. A meeting was scheduled on March 23 to discuss the service conditions of the anganwadi workers.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the reply, Congress, SP and Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs staged a walk out.

The parliamentary affairs minister blamed the SP government for the anganwadi workers’ woes. He said the BJP government had not only revised their salary but also initiated several measures to improve their working condition.

›

A student was kidnapped by his driver Santosh Yadav. Later, the police found that it was a conspiracy of the opposition parties to defame the government BRIJESH PATHAK, Law minister

NO PLAN TO OPEN NEW ENGINEERING COLLEGES

The state government on Tuesday made it clear that there was no plan to open new engineering colleges. Raising the issue during the question hour, Samajwadi Party MLA Sanjay Garg said several engineering colleges in western Uttar Pradesh had hired fake teachers. One teacher was in the faculty of the several engineering colleges, he alleged, demanding that the state government take action against the colleges violating the rules.

At this, technical education minister Ashutosh Tandon said 62% of the seats in the engineering colleges were lying vacant and there was no plan to open new colleges. The state government had decided to take action against the colleges that were running in violation of the norms set by AICTE, he said.

The teachers enrolled in the engineering colleges will be linked with Aadhaar. The state government will also link scholarship with Aadhaar, he said.