M A I N   N E W S

Government to probe Census confusion, says Sonia
Cong to continue support to Mulayam govt

Rae Bareli, September 16
Congress President Sonia Gandhi said here today that the government would inquire into the confusion over the Muslim growth rate in the recently released census report.

“The Centre would look into the census report and an inquiry would be held if any discrepancy is found,” she told reporters in her constituency Rae Bareli on the last day of her three-day tour.

Though Ms Gandhi has been criticising the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led government for the worsening law and order situation and the lack of development projects, she ruled out any move to withdraw support to it.

The Congress President’s announcement on the census came just a day after Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal admitted the confusion was a “technical aberration” due to the non-inclusion of data from the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir that was not available for earlier censuses.

Though census authorities later said the data had been wrongly interpreted, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, as well as other Hindu radical groups, lost no time in raising the volatile issue and expressed concern at the minority community’s reported growth rate.

Meanwhile, Ms Gandhi assured that she would take up the neglect of the power and roads sector in Rae Bareli with the Centre and the state governments.

When asked whether she would consider inducting more ministers from UP in the Union Cabinet in view of small representation from the state, she replied there was no such plan.

On being pointed out Bahujan Samaj Party was talking about separate Vidharbha state in Maharashtra on the eve of the polls, she said that the Congrees was fighting the elections in alliance with NCP.

When asked if the BSP would fight it alone in Maharashtra she said, “you should ask the BSP for the rest”.

Meanwhile, Ms Gandhi today assured a delegation of Uttar Pradesh Working Journalists Union that she would try to solve the problems of the employees of National Herald, Nav Jeevan and Qaumi Awaz, which were founded by late Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.

The delegation called upon Ms Gandhi at the Indian Telephone Industries guest house here to narrate the woes of the employees of the three newspapers, which have seized publication from the state since long.

The delegation claimed that during the past five years, more than a dozen employees had died due to lack of medical attention, while education and marriage of their wards had badly suffered.

Several others had lost the mental balance, they added. — Agencies