Meerut inferno: Agitated students ransack DM's office

Lucknow, Apr 12: Students in Meerut today ransacked the District Magistrate's office protesting against the administration's poor response to the trade fair inferno on Monday.

The police, however, claimed the students were affiliated to ABVP, the student wing of BJP.

Students of Meerut College gathered at the office of the District Magistrate and ransacked the furniture. ''They damaged chairs and broke down the glass,'' SSP (Meerut) Rajiv Sabbarwal told UNI over phone.

Police arrested eight students on charges of rioting. ''No one was injured in the incident,'' Mr Sabbarwal added.

There had been resentment in the people at large over the poor handling of the situation by the local administration. People were unhappy that District Magistrate Ram Krishna was the chief guest at the opening ceremony at the trade fair, where proper safety measures were not complied with, leading to the tragedy.

Later, when the authorities used a mini bulldozer to sift through the rubble, remains of those buried in the debris were crushed beyond recognitition. The sight of the crushed remains of the victims created a major furore among the people.

While state police chief Bua Singh had claimed that so far only five applications of people missing in the tragedy were received, the actual number of those missing after the fire is far more.

Unable to get any information about their near and dear ones made people heckle the security staff of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav who had gone to Meerut early yesterday.

The CM had announced a judicial probe into the incident to be headed by a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court.

UNI

Related Stories