In a controversial demand, mayor of Aligarh Shakuntala Bharti and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from the area Sanjeev Raja demanded that school girls should not be allowed to carry mobile phones.

While speaking at an event at the Uday Singh Inter College in Aligarh, Ms. Bharti, who has courted controversies in the past, said, “Why do young schoolgoing girls need mobile phones? It is one of the reasons why girls of Aligarh are going in a wrong direction and meeting wrong people.”

Parents’ responsibility

While agreeing with Ms. Bharti, Mr. Rana said, “I wonder why young girls cover their faces while riding motorbikes. It is like the idea of using mobile phones when all they have to do is go to school from home and come back home from school. It is the parents’ responsibility to prohibit girls from covering their faces.”