Centre rules out President's rule in Rajasthan

Lucknow, Jun 3 (UNI) Ruling out imposition of President's rule in Rajasthan due to the deterioration in the law and order situation following the Gujjar stir for ST status, the Centre today asked the Vasundhara Raje government to take steps to restore normalcy in the state.

'' The present BJP government in Rajasthan is responsible for the situation as they duped the people by making false election promises,'' Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said here.

He said Rajasthan Governor S K Singh had also sent his report to the Centre on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The Minister, however, asserted that the Centre was not in favour of imposition of President's rule in Rajasthan, saying '' There is no question of invoking Article 356 of the Constitution as the UPA government is totally against its use.'' Mr Jaiswal appealed to the people of Rajasthan to maintain calm and urged them to express their anger against the the BJP in the coming assembly polls rather than disturbing law and order in the state.

Mr Jaiswal condemned the use of force by the BJP government to control the agitation and its attempt to shift the blame on the Centre and said the saffron party's vote bank politics were solely responsible for the crisis.

Claiming that the Centre was giving all assistance to the Rajasthan government to control the situation including additional forces, modern firearms and even intelligence inputs, the Union Minister claimed that it was a ''black day for the country's politics as the masses had to come out on the roads against the false promises of the government''.

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