The Jat reservation issue resonated in the Vidhan Sabha on Thursday with the BSP demanding that the Assembly adopt a resolution and send it to the Centre. BSP chief Mayawati has already supported to the Jat agitation for reservation in Haryana and condemned police action to quell the violence.
Raising the issue through an adjournment notice, BSP member Gajendra Singh said that the Assembly should adopt a resolution providing OBC status to the Jats in the state.
Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey said that a similar resolution was adopted by the UP Assembly during the previous regime and was sent to the Centre which was pending.
Opposing the adjournment notices, Parliamentary Affairs minister Azam Khan said that the BJP government in Haryana has not done justice with the Jats. The ruling BJP had promised to provide OBC status to the Jats during the Assembly polls in October 2014 thereby ensuring reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. He said that instead of fulfilling poll promises, the BJP government ordered police firing on the community asking for their legitimate rights.
BJP MlA Shyam Deo Rai Chowdhary, also through adjournment notice, raised the issue of growing burden of power consumers due to the faulty meters installed in his constituency in Varanasi. He said the power distribution company in Varanasi is enhancing the connected load of domestic consumers without seeking their consent and without informing them. He said the consumers are being made to pay for the inefficiency of power distribution companies. He pointed out that faulty meters were depciting increased consumption.
Opposing the notice, Parliamentary Affairs minister Azam Khan said the state government has taken measures for bringing down transmission and distribution losses and also line losses by laying underground cables in several cities. Khan rejected the contention of the BJP MlA that meters were running faster. He said the meters can be rendered inoperational but cannot make it show additional consumption.
BJP MlA from Muzaffarnagar, Suresh Rana raised the issue of rising pollution levels in rivers of western UP as aresult of effluents discharged from industrial units and also municipal waste and sewage. Raising the issue through an adjournment notice, BJP member said the pollution is posing threat to the public health and the agriculture productivity.
Opposing the notice, Azam Khan said that slaughter houses in western UP was the single biggest cause of pollution in rivers and asked Rana to approach the BJP-led Union government and get the slaughter houses closed. He said the state government had sent a detailed proposal to the Union government for launching river cleaning programme and construction of sewage treatment plants in big towns to which the Centre has not provided funds for the project.