Mulayam-led UNPA puts Mayawati in dock over serial blasts

Lucknow/Varanasi/Faizabad, Nov 25 (UNI) The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) today held the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh responsible for the serial blasts, as it had ''overlooked the threat perception.'' UNPA leaders, including its chairman and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Telagu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala and SP general secretary Amar Singh visited the blast spots in three places today to asses the situation.

Talking to mediapersons in Lucknow, Mr Yadav said the incident occurred because of the demoralisation of the state officials by Mayawati.

''The present BSP regime is only terrorising the officials and resultantly they are not concentrating on their job,'' the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister claimed.

The state government is only interested in insulting officials and putting all the blame on the Centre, he maintained.

Mr Yadav, also did not spare the media, commented that some section of the fraternity was also playing to the tunes of the BSP government.

Castigating the state government, the SP chief reminded that his previous regime held the concerned officials responsible for any terrorist activity, but the incumbent dispensation was only interested in playing politics over the bodies.

TDP president Chandra Babu Naidu said the Uttar Pradesh government should clarify, why it was late by six hrs to react and take any action after the blasts.

''Police took six hrs to detect the second live bomb in Lucknow, which contained high-grade expolsives,'' he said, adding a major incident was averted as it did not explode.

INLD leader Mr Chautala said the state government did not react fast after the blasts and the people themselves carried out the rescue and relief work.

''Both the state and the Centre should be held responsible for the terrorist act in which lives of 13 people were lost,'' he noted.

Giving it a political colour, SP general secretary Amar Singh alleged that ''for Mayawati only SP activists are terrorists against whom her government has lodged over 10,000 fake cases in the last six months.'' Terming the blasts as an assault on judiciary, Mr Singh said after the attack on Parliament in December 2001, it was another brazen act of the terrorists.

He claimed it was a total failure of the UP government in tracking down the terrorists.

UNI