‘Quit Muzaffarnagar’ call gathers storm

Lucknow: A call given two days ago by Bhartiya Kisan Union asking all ‘ outsiders’ working in industrial units in Mufaffarnagar district to move out within one month has started gaining ground with more and more youth supporting the call.

Trouble is brewing in Muzaffarnagar once again and, this time, it is not a communal or caste issues.

A call given two days ago by the Bhartiya Kisan Union ( BKU) asking all ‘ outsiders’ working in industrial units in the district to move out within one month was taken lightly in the beginning. However, the demand is now gaining ground with more and more youth supporting the call. The Bhartiya Kisan Union, founded by farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait is a representative body of farmers in western UP and plays a major role when elections are held. Since farmers form a sizeable population in the western UP region, the BKU emerges as a force to reckon with. On issues related to farmers, it is close to Rashtriya Lok Dal but does not always agree with it on matters related to politics. After the death of Mahendra Singh Tikait in 2011, his eldest son Naresh Tikait heads the organization. Anil Tyagi, a member of the ‘ Muzaffarnagar Bachao’ campaign said, “The youth of Muzaffarnagar are forced to migrate to Haryana and Delhi in search of jobs while people from other districts are coming here and getting employment. We are not going to take this lying down any more”.

He said that if the ‘ outsiders’ did not leave the district within one month, they would start a campaign ‘ to identify such elements and send them back’.

Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of the BKU said that people, from other states were employed in local sugar mills, paper mills and other industrial units. “We have youth who are employable but their claims are being deliberately ignored. We have given a memorandum to the district magistrate seeking an administrative order for the industrial units to employ local youths on priority basis,” he said.