By IANS,
Ghaziabad : About 100 Samajwadi Party (SP) activists, including five MPs and two state lawmakers, were detained at the Uttar Pradesh border Sunday when they were headed for Mayawati’s village Badalpur here. They were later allowed to go back.
Superintendent of Police (City) Vijay Bhushan said the detained parliamentarians were Mohan Singh, Dharmendra Yadav, Om Prakash Singh, Vir Pal Singh and Bhagwan Singh Shakhya. The detained legislators included Madan Chauhan from Garh Mukteshwar.
When the SP leaders reached UP Gate at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, the police personnel stopped their motorcade and detained them.
The Ghaziabad and Noida administration had barricaded all the entry points to Badalpur village.
Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh camped at Delhi to monitor the situation.
Three legislators – Surendra Nagar, Satvir Gurjar and Horam Singh – went to Badalpur village to convince the farmers’ struggle committee chairman Jagdish Lambardar to withdraw the agitation, said Lalit Srivastava, a local resident.
The farmers’ struggle committee, comprising leaders from various political parties, had announced launch of an agitation against the low compensation amount to the farmers whose land was acquired to establish a world class recreation centre in the village, said Lambardar.
The farmers’ struggle committee organised a protest rally July 31 at Badalpur village.
Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the state’s Congress president, and Sachin Pilot, MP, were arrested at the Uttar Pradesh border in Ghaziabad while trying to reach Badalpur to take part in the farmers’ rally. Joshi has said the Greater Noida authority was acquiring land in Badalpur village at a rate six times lower than the market price.