BJP to protest against privatisation, mayhem in Rajasthan

JAIPUR, AUG 3: The Opposition BJP in Rajasthan has decided to launch a state-wide agitation against the Congress government headed by Asho...

JAIPUR, AUG 3: The Opposition BJP in Rajasthan has decided to launch a state-wide agitation against the Congress government headed by Ashok Gehlot on the issue of a privatisation of the state electricity board and the deteriorating law and order situation. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state executive last evening.

According to a party spokesman, the first phase of the agitation would be marked by dharnas at all tehsil headquarters on August 9. The meeting, the first after the assumption of presidency by Bhanwar Lal Sharma, adopted a resolution condemning the division of the electricity board in to five companies. It observed that the government’s action was detrimental to the interests of the common domestic consumer as well as farmers, besides threatening the jobs of employees in the state electricity board.

Regarding law and order, the BJP said the situation had deteriorated so badly that rapes, murders and dacoities had become a daily occurrence.

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The communal riots at Malpura-Tonk had exposed the government’s incompetence, the BJP claimed. The meeting discussed the murder of Kailash Mali and related issues at length and charged the government with adopting a partisan attitude in arresting people responsible for the violent incidents.

The meeting also decided to organise a march to Malpura to press for a CBI inquiry into riots, but did not set any date for the purpose.

Former chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, addressing the meeting, said the graph of the Congress government had registered a steep decline. It was working in a whimsical manner and taking anti-people actions. Contrary to its pre-election promise to provide jobs to people, it was depriving even the already employed of their livelihood. It had wound up numerous government organisations and departments, abolished thousands of posts and was busy retrenching people at breakneck speed. Employees were faced with harassment due to transfers on political grounds. It was time the BJP launched an agitation to articulate sentiments of the masses, he said.