Muzaffarnagar riots: Gadkari demands dismissal of Akhilesh Govt.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday accused the Akhilesh Yadav-led Government of failing to maintain law and order in Uttar Pradesh and demanded the state government's immediate dismissal.

"President (Pranab Mukherjee) must immediately dismiss this government because it is incapable of providing security to people in the state," Gadkari told media here.

"The UP Government has completely failed to maintain communal harmony and peace. The law and order situation is getting worse in UP. Their communal practices in the name of a secular government are defaming our nation. The life of the common people is unsafe," he said.

"A government that cannot ensure the security of common people should not stay," he added.

Meanwhile, curfew remained in force in riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar District, where 31 people have died and more than three dozen were injured in communal violence over the weekend.

The police have issued shoot-at-sight orders and have filed cases against over 1,000 unknown people and arrested over 90, including four BJP MLAs and a former Congress MP.

With tension running high in the area, the Centre had on Monday offered to provide additional paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh to assist the local administration in dealing with the situation.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Government has constituted a one-member judicial commission to probe Muzaffarnagar violence.

The commission, which would mainly look into administrative lapses, if any, in controlling the violence, would submit its report to the government within two months.

"A one-member judicial inquiry commission of Justice Vishnu Sahai has been constituted by the government to probe the Muzaffarnagar violence, starting from Kawal incident on August 27 till September 9," State Home Secretary Kamal Saxena said.

However, amid sharp criticism from leaders of various opposition parties over the violence, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday described it as a political conspiracy to destabilize the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government in the state.

Yadav said his government is committed to restoring normalcy in the state, and added that the culprits will be brought to book.

"The incidents can be solved by community elders, but there are certain forces that don't want peace to prevail," he told media here.

Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on Saturday when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.