By IANS,
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government Saturday blamed “mischief mongers” for the violent clash in Greater Noida earlier during the day, which left three people dead and more than a dozen, including a district magistrate, injured.
Refuting reports that inadequate compensation for farmers’ acquired lands had triggered violence, Director General of Police (DGP) Karamveer Singh told reporters here: “The trouble in Greater Noida was engineered by a self-styled farmer leader Manvendra Singh Teotia, who had his own political agenda and vested interest.”
“The trouble has nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of compensation against acquired land because a bulk of the farmers had not only happily taken their compensation but had publicly declared their satisfaction with what they received through a mutually agreed settlement,” he said.
“Teotia was trying to exploit the sentiments of a small group of farmers for his own vested interest,” Singh said.
The DGP said: “There were other issues behind the trouble.” But he refused to spell these out.
“We will talk about those issues later but let me clarify that those involved in igniting the trouble were not farmers but some anti-social elements who were trying to falsely project themselves as champions of the cause of farmers,” he said.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) too issued a statement in the evening, reiterating what the state police chief stated.
“The Mayawati government has always believed in giving the highest priority to the interests of the farmers. That is why a system has been evolved to settle the rate of compensation through mutual negotiations between the farmer and the party for whom the acquisition is required; the government only facilitates these negotiations,” the statement said.
The BSP flayed the Congress whose state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi had sought to blame the Mayawati government for the violence.
“The Congress must look at its own track record before raising a word against us; Joshi’s accusations against the Mayawati government reflect her anti-Dalit mindset,” the statement added.