Thaindian News

Lucknow, May 12 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday accused opposition parties of instigating farmers to demand higher land compensation and described Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as a “bechara” who could do nothing over the delays by the central government in passing an amended land acquisition bill.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi for his demonstration at Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida, Mayawati said the “yuvraj (prince) of Congress” should fight a battle within his own party and government, where the issue had been hanging fire for a while.

“It seems this helpless individual’s writ is not running within his own party,” Mayawati said. That is why, she added, he was “venting his frustration through “dramabazi (drama), reflected in the manner he was staging his demonstration in UP”.

Rahul Gandhi had staged a daylong dharna at Bhatta Parsaul Wednesday. He was arrested and subsequently released around 2 a.m.

The chief minister denied that the land of farmers in Bhatta Parsaul was being acquired for the Yamuna Expressway being built by the Jaypee group. “That particular land had been acquired in 2009 for general development by the Greater Noida authority against which all the compensation was duly paid to the farmers under an agreement as per the terms of our own acquisition policy.”

Uttar Pradesh, she said, had evolved its own land acquisition policy because of delays by the central government.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader said a wrong message was being sought to be conveyed to people of the country through a conspiracy by opposition parties raising issues of land compensation in Uttar Pradesh.

She said the opposition was twisting facts and making an issue out of a non-issue, “largely with an eye to the state assembly elections less than a year away”.

She did not mention Rahul Gandhi by name but said: “I wish to make it loud and clear to all and sundry that I will not allow anyone to take law into his hands in this state. Therefore, no one, howsoever high and mighty, would be spared if he dares to take any such step that could pose a threat to the law and order here.”

Mayawati also hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for turning a blind eye to what she termed “inadequate compensation” being paid to farmers in her own parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli, where agricultural land was acquired for a rail coach factory.

“Well, she had to face questions from farmers in her constituency yesterday for the grossly poor compensation paid to them,” Mayawati pointed out.

“Instead of being there (in Greater Noida), Congress leaders should have been in Rae Bareli where farmers are struggling against the poor compensation paid to them.”