Thaindian News

Varanasi, May 18 (IANS) The campaign in support of farmers launched in violence-torn Bhatta-Parsaul in Greater Noida will be taken to every village in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi asserted here Wednesday.

“The Uttar Pradesh government is hell bent on showing that everything is fine in Bhatta-Parsaul. If so, then why is section 144 (banning assemblies and demonstrations) clamped there, why are people in the village fleeing,” Gandhi asked while addressing a two-day Congress convention here.

“If everything is fair, then why is the state government not ordering a judicial probe into the violence in the village?”

Gandhi said that the sub-divisional magistrate of Greater Noida had told him that Maoists have moved into the area, spreading more fear among the local villagers.

The two-day Congress convention comes amid belligerent statements by party leaders blasting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for “institutionalising corruption” in the state.

It follows Gandhi’s visit last week to Bhatta-Parsaul, where violent clashes between farmers agitating for higher compensation for their land acquired by the government and police led to the killing of four people.

Tension prevails in the village, where hundreds of people have left their homes and families live in fear.

Gandhi, who has announced his support for the farmers’ cause, later led a delegation of villagers to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi Tuesday and presented what he claimed was evidence of police atrocities.