Be careful before media, Akhilesh Yadav tells officers

LUCKNOW: The Akhilesh Yadav government, on the defensive over its handling of the recent communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh, was once again put on a mat over the Muzaffarnagar relief camps when comments attributed to a top state bureaucrat drew criticism from the opposition for being insensitive.

UP's Principal Secretary (Home) Anil Kumar Gupta, when asked about reports of deaths of several children in relief camps in the Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts, denied that anyone had died because of the cold weather. "Nobody dies of cold. If people would die of cold nobody would survive in Siberia," he was quoted as saying.

These comments were pounced upon by opposition parties which said that the government was trivialising the deaths of children. There have been a series of reports about children dying in relief camps set up by the government to accommodate the Muzaffarnagar riot victims due to harsh cold, which led to the Supreme Court issuing directions to the state government earlier this month. After Gupta's comments kicked up a storm, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav tried to contain the damage and asked officers to speak before the media carefully. While rebuking the officer for his remarks, Yadav said that they should think before speaking as their words cannot be withdrawn once spoken.

He, however, hinted at a conspiracy behind the uproar over facilities in relief camps and said that it was a campaign to malign the image of the government by vested interests. "Blankets are being collected in Ambience Mall in Delhi for distribution in Muzaffarnagar. What does that mean? Some people are trying to create a controversy," the chief minister said.