Cong says Maya order against federal system of governance

Pointing out that the railways authorities had written thrice to the local authorities last year expressing their intent to acquire the land for the project, Singhvi said Mayawati has now created “convenient objections”. Singhvi said the project was approved in the 2006-07 Budget and was estimated to generate employment opportunities for 10,000 people of the state.

The AICC spokesperson also took potshots at the state Government’s drive to erect statues of Mayawati and Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshiram. “The UP CM is not concerned about development in the state. How else can one explain the cancellation of land allotment when the state administration continues to acquire land for erecting Mayawati’s statues? What is more surprising is that it faces no difficulty in getting approval for such projects, which are sometimes even in the vicinity of the Taj.”

Since the UP Government has cited unrest within the farming community as the reason for cancellation of land allotment, the Congress tried to differentiate the Rae Bareli project from the Tata Project in Singur (West Bengal), which had to be relocated to Gujarat recently amid protests from local farmers.

“There is no comparison between Singur, Nandigram in West Bengal and Rae Bareli in UP. It is like comparing oranges with apples. Singur farmers weren’t offered good compensation initially,” said Singhvi.

AICC general secretary in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh said Sonia Gandhi always led the farmers’ cause from the front and termed Mayawati’s decision as being inspired by “vengeance”. “We don’t understand why have they cancelled the land allotment when there was no agitation over it. The decision is politically motivated and shows the whimsical functioning of Mayawatiji,” said Digvijay Singh.

Singh also welcomed the decision of the Allahabad High Court order staying the cancellation of land allotment to the proposed project. He said Sonia Gandhi would visit her constituency on Tuesday.

Later in the day, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said that the bhoomi poojan ceremony scheduled for Tuesday had been cancelled owing to the High Court directions in the case. “The case will come up for hearing on October 22. We do not want any activity on the site till then. Lalu, too, criticised Maya for scrapping the land allotment while adding that the land in question did not belong to farmers and was not of fertile nature either. “We had deposited Rs 9 crore and had taken possession too,” he said.