BSP protests wall demolition
BSP workers led by leader of the opposition in the Assembly Swami Prasad Maurya and senior party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui on Thursday staged a sit-in to protest dismantling of the outer boundary wall of Bhim Rao Ambedkar Memorial in Gomti Nagar.
Terming the demolition as an act of political vendetta, Maurya accused the ruling Samajwadi Party of violating a court order not to touch any structure or construction within the Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Complex precincts.
“I had written a letter to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and also spoke to him when I came to know about the government’s plan to raze the wall. He (CM) had assured me that no action would be taken. The move reflects the anti-dalit mindset of the authorities,” he said.
None of the BSP leaders, however, had turned up to register their protest on Wednesday when the wall was brought down in a daylong operation by a team of LDA and UP Bridge Corporation officials. Maurya told media persons the demolition was carried out late in the night to keep everyone in the dark. Addressing partymen, Naseemudin Siddiqui said razing of the wall ‘amounted to humiliation’ of dalits and the Samajwadi Party will have to pay a price for it.
The event provided the BSP an opportunity to mobilize its city cadres that started converging at the site in their SUVs to mark their attendance as the day passed. Soon a ‘pandaal’ was erected in front of the rubble of the demolished wall. Both Maurya and Siddiqui vowed that they would not call off the stir till the wall was rebuilt.
Later in the day, district magistrate Raj Shekhar Yadav and SSP Rajesh Pandey arrived at the venue along with a team of LDA officials.
The officials tried to convince the BSP leaders that the demolition drive to restore the blocked road was undertaken in compliance of a high court order. The Supreme Court stayed the HC order in 2010.
The SC had directed that a status quo be maintained at the site on a petition filed by Srijan Vihar and Gomti Nagar Jan Kalyan Samiti seeking restoration of the blocked road. The apex court, according to an LDA official, vacated the stay in July 2015 after which the demolition exercise was undertaken. POLICE STATION NEXT!
Next on the authorities hitlist is the swanky police station built in the middle of the upper bandha road. Known as Ambedkar Police Station, this one-of-its-kind posh police station, according to Irrigation Department officials, has to be razed to restore the fourlane road as part of the larger Gomti River Front Development and Beautification Plan.