Congress asks UP Govt to strengthen intelligence

The Congress today asked the Uttar Pradesh government to strengthen its intelligence network, which proved to be a failure during the recent surprise visit of the party general secretary Rahul Gandhi to rural areas of eastern UP.

Congress legislature party leader, Pramod Tewari here said, "It is a glaring example of the working of the UP police and its intelligence network that a high profile SPG protectee moves about in districts and it has no information about his
movement."
    
"If this is the case with an SPG protectee, then one can only pray for the state," Tewari said adding that law and order and the working of the police network cannot be improved merely by changing the DGP.
 
"As SPG looks after his security, it was informed about the visit two to three days in advance," Tewari said.

UPCC president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi who was also present said that Rahul's surprise visit was a warning not only to the state administration, but also to the Congress leaders.

The Congress MP had paid a surprise visit to a dalit household in one of the most backward areas of the state at Shrawasti, around 150 kilometres from the state capital on Wednesday and spent the night with them.

UP home secretary Mahesh Kumar Gupta yesterday said, "We are writing to the Centre raising our objections over the way in which Gandhi conducted tour of the state without prior information to the state government."