UP in the Red

Four kilometres away from the spot where Naxalites blew up a PAC truck killing 15 policemen to sound their arrival in UP, lies the Chandrapr...

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Four kilometres away from the spot where Naxalites blew up a PAC truck killing 15 policemen to sound their arrival in UP, lies the Chandraprabha police post which also lost six of its men, including its incharge in the attack. Despite tall promises of beefing up security in the area and a chopper visit of DGP V K B Nair, all of five policemen were guarding the post with as many single-barrel rifles the day after the attack. ‘‘ We are walking bodies at the mercy of the AK-47 loaded Naxalites here,’’ the policemen say. The government recently provided a grant to construct cement bunkers and for the repair of a defunct blast-proof vehicle that the cops used for patrolling the ‘red zone’. No one knows where the money went. In fact, no policeman wants a posting here. The five cops left have also been here since almost two years despite IG Varanasi’s instructions that no posting should be beyond a year in sensitive areas. ‘‘ A posting means death here…it might come late but is inevitable,’’ the cops say.

To Sir with love

SP president and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav appeared in his old avatar of shikshak in the recently concluded winter session of the Assembly. Taking charge of the House, he gave the Opposition a lesson on how to chalk out a strategy for their ‘no-trust move’. In order to bring an effective ‘no trust move’, he instructed, ‘‘you should do your homework, prepare yourself well before coming to the House and then try to grill the government with all force and facts, only then it will have some impact.’’ The unexpected tutorial left the Opposition dumbstruck.

Sapping Suppa’s strength

Chinks are appearing in the SP’s armour. The political grapevine in Lucknow has it that it was because of Amar Singh that Mulayam Singh’s favourite IAS official Shailesh Krishna has been removed from the CM’s Secretariat. Other leaders in the SP who were close to Mulayam like former Union communications minister Beni Prasad Verma, Raj Babbar and Rama Shanker Kaushik have also fallen from grace.

Mantriji’s power

It’s well known that when a minister is given the charge of the important energy portfolio, the first intructions he passes on to the power officials is to ensure that there is 24-hour, uninterrupted electricity supply to his home district. Mulayam Singh Yadav is also the energy minister. His home district of Etawah, the neighbouring district of Mainpuri as well as Kannauj, which is represented by his son in the Lok Sabha, are getting 24-hour power supply. Prior to him, Naresh Agarwal had done the same thing for Hardoi. During the Mayawati regime, Ramveer Upadhaya’s home district, Hathras, was accorded the same privilege.