Kanpur:
The Kanpur district administration today ordered an inquiry into the alleged security breach and lathicharge of Congress workers and journalists during Rahul Gandhi's visit.
District Magistrate Mukesh Meshram said that a probe has been ordered into the incident and whosoever found guilty will be prosecuted.
ADM City Shailendra Kumar will probe the incident and file his report in three days, he said.
Denying the charges levelled by State Congress President Rita Bahuguna Joshi that adequate arrangements were not made by the district administration for Gandhi's visit, he said the area around the Hallet hospital was guarded by police but when some Congress workers started shouting slogans, the situation went out of control.
Yesterday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the Hallet Hospital here to meet the 16-year-old Dalit girl maimed for resisting a rape attempt.
Outside the hospital, Congress workers raised slogans against the Mayawati government and clashed with police, who used lathis to chase them away. Six persons, including three journalists, were injured in the incident.
Also, two vehicles had entered Gandhi's cavalcade yesterday.
Joshi has said that she will file a complaint with the Home Ministry regarding the security breach of Rahul Gandhi and also demanded an inquiry into the incident.
Joshi alleged that though the district administration was informed about Gandhi's visit, proper arrangements were not made.
"It shows that the state government was lax as far as the security of Gandhi is concerned," she said.
She also alleged that proper arrangements were not made for journalists outside Kanpur hospital where Rahul had gone, due to which some journalists had to suffer injuries.
Joshi also said that the state was not serious regarding the security of Gandhi, as is evident from the fact that the SPG-protected cavalcade of Gandhi had to face problems at many places.
She said though the SPG will file its report to the Home Ministry, the State Congress Committee will also file a separate report highlighting lax attitude and improper arrangements by the district police.
When media persons can be lathicharged by the police, then how can a common man feel safe, she said.
She said that Rs one lakh was given to the girl's family for her treatment on Gandhi's direction and if needed, more money will be given for the treatment.
Joshi also said that the recent incidents of protests by women in Uttar Pradesh against injustice were symptomatic of the frustration felt by the common man in the state.
"These incidents marked by acts of desperate protests were the proverbial tip of the iceberg of the prevailing state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh," she said.
Joshi was referring to the incidents of February 5 in Aligarh when a number of women protestors threw themselves in front of the Chief Minister Mayawati's cavalcade during her
two-hour long visit to the district.
Joshi said that a team from the Women's cell of the State Congress had visited the Aligarh district jail yesterday.
The three women, who had been jailed for protesting in front of Chief Minister Mayawati during her recent visit to Aligarh, were being treated in a manner which can only be described as 'pathetic and humiliating', she said.
One of the arrested Dalit women Chandrawati (27) had to take her 11-month old child Ankit with her inside the jail and the behavior of the prison staff towards her was "downright insensitive and degrading", she alleged.