City Briefs

National president of Youth Congress Rajiv Satav and its general secretary Virender Singh Rathore were detained along with several workers when they were marching towards Robertsganj to hold a rally. The leaders were released late in the evening.

“We were first allotted the Mandi Parishad ground but later denied permission for the venue,” said Satav. “It is really sad the way they have treated us. Now we would take it up in a big way and would confront the state government on the issue of corruption in MGNREGA and atrocities against SC/STs,” he said.

Meanwhile,Congress state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi condemned the incident and said that now Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain would visit Sonbhadra on April 4 to investigate charges of corruption and anomalies in implementation of MGNREGA.

“The Congress will now become more aggressive in highlighting corruption in implementation of Central government schemes in the state,” she added.

SHRC for FIR against cops who hit vendor

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission (UPHRC) has directed the state police to register an FIR against unidentified policemen for allegedly assaulting a fruit juice vendor. The commission,while directing the state police to arrest the accused policemen after identifying them,also asked the principal secretary,Home,to ensure that the government pays compensation of Rs 10,000 to vendor Aman Sonkar,who was allegedly assaulted last week,a senior officer said. Sonkar was allegedly thrashed by a policeman for not giving him juice free of cost and was illegally detained at Wazirganj police station. The commission has also issued notices to DGP,principal secretary (Home),DM and DIG,Lucknow,asking them to send a detailed report on the incident by April 25.