M A I N   N E W S

Noida Firing
Oppn stages walkout in UP
Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 19
While the Mayawati government today allowed a debate on the Noida firing, it rejected the combined opposition’s demand for an all-party probe and judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge. The refusal caused a walkout by the opposition parties.

The August 13 police firing, killing five farmers and grievously injuring over 50, continued to dominate the proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha on the second consecutive day today.

Initiating the debate, leader of the opposition Mulayam Singh Yadav described the police firing as “unwarranted” as the farmers had already informed the administration well in advance that they would stage a peaceful demonstration.

Questioning the illogical compensation package, Yadav said while two of the post-2006 villages had been compensated at the revised rate of Rs 850 per square metre then why were the remaining six villages of Greater Noida being denied the same rate.

Yadav also charged the district administration of spreading false rumours regarding the killing of two policemen in the firing and the injury to a dozen odd senior officers, including the SSP, to show that the farmers were combative.

The opposition leaders also demanded raising the compensation given to the family members of the deceased to Rs 15 lakh, asked for a government job for at least one member of the bereaved families, murder charges against officers who ordered the firing and removal from service of two policemen who had dragged a body after the incident.

Senior BJP leader Hukum Singh blamed successive state governments of acting like a wheeler-dealer by acquiring productive agriculture land from farmers in Noida and Greater Noida at a pittance and selling it off to private builders at an exorbitant price.

He also demanded to know from the government what per cent of the land had been used to set up industries or other welfare projects and how much of it had been cornered by big builders for residential and commercial complexes that would provide no employment.

Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari compared the situation in Greater Noida to that of Jallianwala Bagh and Nandigram where similarly unarmed people were killed by the state machinery and the entire incident had been hushed up.

However, the state government rejected all demands of the opposition and blamed the farmers for inciting violence and even trying to burn the Greater Noida Authority office.

Responding on behalf of the government parliamentary affairs minister Lalji Verma said the farmers had come prepared for a showdown, as they had brought stone and bricks on their tractors to attack the policemen.

He repeated what Mayawati had said yesterday that the firing was ordered as a last resort in self-defence by the police when the mob had tried to burn alive employees of the Noida authority. Verma also announced the name of retired judge D.K. Trivedi to conduct the judicial probe into the firing.