Centre asks for report again; UP keeps silent

The Uttar Pradesh government has turned a deaf ear to the Union home ministry’s request for status reports on the Muzaffarnagar relief camps, but home minister Sushilkumar Shinde isn’t giving up.

The Uttar Pradesh government has turned a deaf ear to the Union home ministry’s request for status reports on the Muzaffarnagar relief camps, but home minister Sushilkumar Shinde isn’t giving up.

The home ministry asked for a report on the relief camps on Monday, the fourth in the last three weeks.

The ministry bureaucrats in Delhi had woken up to the plight of thousands of people on 11 December — a day after Shinde said he would inquire about the living conditions in the camps.

Over the past two months, nearly three dozen children are reported to have died at the camps.

The Uttar Pradesh government had been told to report on the number of people living in the relief camps, the reasons for the deaths of children and the preventive measures.