U.P. Govt. gears to face SP protests

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 8. An apprehensive Uttar Pradesh Government today ordered preventive arrests of the Samajwadi Party activists to thwart violence tomorrow when the party goes for large-scale demonstrations to highlight the failures of the present regime. Law enforcing agencies have been advised to take all precautionary measures to maintain peace as the Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, said violence could not be ruled out as the Samajwadi Party was acting in frustration.

The administration has been suspicious about the intentions of the Samajwadi Party, especially in the background of the violence that took place during the recent strike call given by the party following the murder of its MP, Phoolan Devi. The SP activists had indulged in clashes with the police at Varanasi, where one person was killed when a crowd exchanged fire with the Provincial Armed Constabulary. In several districts, traffic was disrupted and trains were stopped by the demonstrators.

A Home Department spokesman told newspersons that the district authorities had been advised to take necessary measures to maintain peace in the area. Potential trouble-makers could be taken into preventive custody. When the attention of the Chief Minister was drawn to the plans of agitation by the SP, he told mediapersons that he did not foresee any large-scale trouble, but added that nothing could be ruled out. He said the party had done nothing for the people during the last four years.

He said he gave no importance to the announcements by SP leaders that their MLAs could resign by October next, if Assembly elections were not called. The elections, he insisted, are due only by March 26 next year, when the present House would be completing its five-year term. The plan to go on an agitation was only an attempt to beguile the people. ``They (SP) had done nothing in people's interests and were now looking for political action to seek favourable public opinion. I sympathise with them,'' Mr. Singh said.

The UP Samajwadi Party president, Mr. Ram Saran Das, said shopkeepers who decided to keep their establishments open would be doing so at their own risk. He said his party had not given a call for strike tomorrow. The SP workers would only stage demonstrations, he added. The SP workers were, however, found making calls for a general strike. By evening the administration had started large-scale deployment of forces to deal with the situation.

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