I would have taught striking workers a lesson: Ramgopal

A day after the strike by state employees was called off, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav today came down heavily on the agitating workers, saying that had he been the Chief Minister, he would have "taught them a lesson."
"State employees do not even put in work in keeping with their salaries... Had I been in place of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, I would have taught them a lesson," Ramgopal Yadav said in reply to a question during a programme to inaugurate computerisation of party's district office.
"People are suffering due to inflation, almost half the population of the country is on the brink of starvation, and under such circumstances these employees are concerned only about their salary hike," the SP general secretary said.

The employees had postponed their strike on the eleventh day yesterday, after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court agreed to monitor the talks between the government and the workers about their 15-point charter of demands.
On mill owners adamant on not crushing sugarcane over high purchase price, Ramgopal said the government was trying to work out a middle path as the owners said they were running on losses.
"If the mills close down who will buy the sugarcane?" he said, adding that the state government is trying to work out a middle path to resolve the problem of both the mill owners and farmers.