Sacked cops could prove cancerous for society: UP Cong

Lucknow, Sep 21 (UNI) Over 10,000 constables sacked by the Uttar Pradesh government following annulment of police recruitment boards set up by the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government could prove 'cancerous' for society, the Uttar Pradesh Congress today said.

Talking to reporters here, UP Congress president Salman Khurshid claimed that several thousand trained policemen were now jobless.

''This is not good ...it could create a law and order problem,'' he said.

The former Union minister claimed that annulment of recruitment boards and suspension of IPS officers heading them would not solve the problem. ''Such a step connot be the solution...in fact, the state government should make public the probe report so that people can assess what went wrong,'' he said. Mr Khurshid recalled the fact that the Congress had raised questions when the previous Mulayam Singh regime had constituted 55 recruitment boards to induct 22,000 constables for civil police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC).

He said on the directives of Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, the state Congress had sent a 'probe committee' to Poorvanchal (East UP) to verify the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). ''The committee found that the scheme was not being implemented properly in the remote areas of east UP...since the last 18 months when the scheme was launched, it was not properly implemented in various parts of the state,'' he alleged. He claimed that the Centre had so far provided several crore rupees under the scheme.

''We request the state government to implement the scheme and look beyond party politics,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the probe committee has submitted its report to the Centre and has demanded a central audit.

UNI