Making a mockery of deaths in the Muzaffarnagar relief camps, Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary for Home Anil Gupta on Friday said that children living in the relief camp did not die of cold.
Children died because they were taken for treatment outside the camps in which they were living, he said.
Gupta said that the children died of pneumonia, premature deaths and not of cold. "No one can die of cold. If people die of cold then nobody will survive in Siberia, " he said.
Reacting to this insensitive statment, Kamal Farooqi who was sacked from Samajwadi Party over his remarks on Bhatkal, said that Gupta should spent a night in these relief camps, he doesn't need to go to Siberia. He also demanded Human Rights panel's action against him.
On Thursday, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary and district magistrates of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli on reports of children's death due to cold in relief camps.
"NHRC has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports that at least 40 children died in riot relief camps due to extreme cold," the commission said in a statement.
"It is also reported that there were not enough blankets for inmates of these camps, resulting in the death of infants and young children in Shamli and Muzaffarnagar districts," the statement added.
The commission also said that the contents of the press reports, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of infants and children.
Mulayam's remark on riot camps taken to minorities panel
The National Commission for Minorities admitted a petition seeking action against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh for saying that not one of the Muzaffarnagar riot victims now lives in any relief camp.
The petitioner cited remarks made by Mulayam Singh while addressing a party gathering in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow Dec 23, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of late prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
"There are no riot victims at all in the (Muzaffarnagar) camps. You can check. These are people who are conspirators. BJP and Congress have conspired. They have asked people to stay there at night and sit on dharnas," the petitioner quoted Mulayam Singh as saying.
The petitioner, Shehzad Poonawala, a lawyer by training who has delivered over 3,000 blankets donated by people to the camps, listed 31 children who have died of cold at the relief camps.
He also listed the number of people in at least 13 camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of western Uttar Pradesh.
The inhabitants of the camps fled their homes after the riots in early September, and many of them are now unwilling to return to their villages.
The petitioner has sought that besides taking action against the Samajwadi Party chief, the commission should also direct the state government to make an honest and accurate assessment of the people displaced in the riots, and provide ration and relief material to those in the camps.
Poonawala said that Minorities Commission chairperson Wajahat Habibullah has promised to take up the matter.
Officials should keep a check on what they say: UP CM
Lucknow, Dec 27: Taking exception to a controversial remark by senior UP bureaucrat A K Gupta that no child in Muzaffarnagar riot relief camps died of cold, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today asked officials to keep a check on their use of words and ensure nobody's feelings get hurt.
"Use of words by officials or partymen, whether it is about the government's drawbacks or the party's achievements, should be such that nobody's feelings get hurt," he told reporters here.
He was replying to a question on the remark of Principal Secretary (Home) Gupta that no one dies due to cold otherwise people would not have survived in Siberia, one of the world's coldest regions.
Yadav said, "Sometimes, during question-answer sessions, there could be a change in language used....I think officials should keep a control over what they speak."
The Chief Minister said that this was especially so when it came to bureaucrats or party people talking to TV channels which record their byte and show controversial portions repeatedly.
Asked what action would be taken against the Principal Secretary for his irresponsible statement, Yadav said, "Ab ho gaya (It has happened)," while moving on to another question.
Yadav said the government, along with its associates, has tried to put an end to the Muzaffarnagar issue and people should return from the relief camps to their homes. "Many people have already returned to their homes," he said.
Condemning Gupta's comments, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar hit out at the UP government, saying, "When the administration becomes insensitive, this is what then comes out."
He said that instead of accepting the fault and making a correction, the authorities in Uttar Pradesh were blaming others and making most insensitive comments.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah criticised Gupta for his remark, saying that the bureaucrat should be sent out in the cold with lesser clothes.
"Can't die of the cold!!!! Send him out in a few less clothes and let's see if he isn't singing a different tune pretty damn quick," Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com.
Yadav also said that statements by officials or Samajwadi Party workers should not put the government or the party in the dock.
Gupta had yesterday said, "No person dies due to cold or else no one would have survived in Siberia, which is one of the coldest parts of the world."
The bureaucrat had said, "The cause of death could be because of food poisoning or pneumonia. Pneumonia happens due to cold, but cause of death is not cold."
He had said, "We have a report that two, three or four persons died because of pneumonia, but nobody said they died due to cold...."
On the Muzaffarnagar issue, Yadav said the state government had taken necessary steps to provide relief to riot victims, but as Lok Sabha elections are near, attempts were being made to take political mileage by raking up the issue.
"Everyone wants the riot victims to return to their homes....Administration is talking to them. We are trying to persuade them (to return)," he said, adding that attempts were being made to defame the government.
After SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's statement that "conspirators" were living in the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, Gupta's remark has raked up a major controversy, with the state opposition parties demanding the SP government's resignation.
After Rahul Gandhi's sudden visit to the relief camps, Mulayam had stoked a controversy on Monday, saying, "There are no riot victims at all in the camps. There is not even one. You can check.
"These are people who are conspirators. BJP and Congress have conspired. They have asked people to stay there at night and sit in dharnas. This is conspiracy of the people there.
"They (riot victims) have all gone. Congress and BJP are provoking them to rake up the issue till elections," he had said.
However, contradicting Mulayam's claim, a high-level official panel had yesterday said a total of 4,783 "displaced" people were still living in relief camps, where at least 34 children below 12 years had died.
UP BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged that Mulayam knew his party was not capable of "removing the blot of failure" after the riots, and, therefore, he was making accusations against those living in the camps.
He said after Mulayam's statement, it was the Principal Secretary who had made an insensitive comment and demanded that the government resign immediately.
Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh termed the statement as most irresponsible and insensitive.
Taking a dig a Gupta, he said, "If pneumonia does not happen due to cold, what is the reason. Tomorrow, they would say that a person was not killed after being hit by bullet, but due to excessive bleeding."
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