PM will leave for Dangs on Saturday evening
The extraordinary Cabinet meeting notwithstanding,
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will leave for the trouble-torn Dangs
district in Gujarat Saturday evening.
The Cabinet meeting to approve the Ninth
Plan, originally scheduled for January 10, has been advanced a day. Vajpayee,
his officials said, would chair the meeting in the morning before he leaves.
Accompanied by senior officials, he will
halt at Vadodara for the night, and reach reach Ahwa, the headquarters
of Dangs, by helicopter Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Minister of State for
Home Haren Pandya said the Christian attacks issue has been blown out
of proportion. The state government had condemned the incidents, and now
Ahwa is completely peaceful.
Pandya alleged that the Congress, smarting
under the defeat in the Bharuch Lok Sabha by-election, had started a smear-campaign
against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government by politicising the
issue.
Pandya said the state government had Thursday
transferred the collector of Dang to ensure a fair and free atmosphere,
as different investigating teams were visiting the affected areas.
He said the decision to permit the Hindu
Hanjagran Manch rally on December 25 was taken by the collector.
Four companies of state reserve police have
been deployed in the district and the situation was being monitored round
the clock. So far, 150 people have been arrested in 30 registered offences.
The minister claimed the damages reported
in the media were highly exaggerated. According to him, the total damage
to property was less than Rs 400,000. The local administration had already
paid compensation in some areas.
The state government, without fear or favour
or political consideration, has taken concrete steps to reassure and assuage
the feelings of all minorities, he said.
The Christian community had always reposed
faith in the government and their current reaction could be attributed
to the exploitation of their misplaced anxieties by a highly-disgruntled
Congress party, which was now fishing in troubled water, he added.
Pandya said it was ironic that the Congress,
which was fanning communal issues, was pontifying on the situation like
the ''devil quoting the scriptures.''
Your
views ???
compiled from local news media
|
