SP govt kept mum when land was encroached upon for graveyard: Adityanath

Basti (UP), Jul 10 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Samajwadi Party over its alleged pro-Waqf Board stance, claiming that the former government remained silent when the land near the residence of the former SP's district president was being encroached upon in the name of a graveyard. Speaking at a function in Basti, Adityanath said, "In Basti, the land near the then Samajwadi Party's district president's home was being encroached upon in the name of a graveyard. One day, he came to me seeking help. I was an MP back then. I asked, ‘What is your government doing? Why can't you stop the encroachment?’” "He (the then Samajwadi Party's district president) said that the people sitting in Lucknow see nothing but graveyards; they do not see people like us. I sent party workers to remove the encroachment and saved the SP district president's land from being seized; such was the anarchy that prevailed back then," Adityanath said. He also levelled serious allegations on the Samajwadi Party, saying that whenever the Waqf Board designated a piece of land as a "graveyard", the SP members would displace the poor, Dalits, and the marginalised people from that land. "Earlier, land was encroached upon in the name of graveyards, and the poor were harassed. If the Waqf Board declared a plot to be a graveyard or Waqf land, no one dared to object, and the Dalits, the poor, and the marginalised were uprooted. It was these SP people who carried out such work," he said. Yogi Adityanath was in Basti where he inaugurated and laid the foundation of 77 development projects worth over Rs 504 crore. PTI NAV KSI KSI