|
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Sunday, accusing it of rigging the panchayat elections.
Akhilesh Yadav said that the people supported the Samajwadi Party in the panchayat elections but the BJP government insulted the mandate by misusing the official machinery and goons.
“I am yet to come across a party indulging in more hooliganism than BJP. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath experiments with hooliganism in Gorakhpur and then implements it in the entire state,” Akhilesh Yadav said here on Sunday.
The SP chief accused the UP government of hiding the COVID-19 death figures and claimed the state government did not want to give the statistics as it did not want to help the people. He also highlighted the issue of teachers dying during panchayat poll duty in the state.
"The government did not give the actual data pertaining to the COVID-19 deaths, nor was any help given to them. The UP government did not give the statistics of COVID-19 deaths, as they did not want to help the people," he said.
"When the teachers went on panchayat poll duty, it was said that only three teachers died during poll duty due to COVID-19. Later, when teacher’s organisations and we raised questions, the government had to admit how many lives were actually lost," the SP chief said.
A teachers’ body had earlier claimed that over 1,600 teachers and workers of the Basic Education department have died in Uttar Pradesh since the first week of April due to COVID-19, and said that 90 per cent of them were on panchayat polls duty. However, Satish Chandra Dwivedi, UP;s Minister of State (independent charge) for Basic Education, had said that all these deaths could not be attributed to election duty and according to government data, only three teachers had died of COVID-19. On May 31, the UP cabinet had approved a financial assistance of Rs 30 lakh for the kin of government personnel who died on duty during the recently-held panchayat elections, including those who succumbed to COVID-19 within 30 days of poll duty. The cabinet had also approved increasing the ex gratia amount from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.
"The duration of duty as defined by the Election Commission of India was the basis on which the State Election Commission had formed the guidelines, in which the duration of COVID-19 infection and death was not considered. Hence, for the ex gratia, death due to COVID-19 within 30 days from election duty has been made the eligibility criteria," a state government spokesperson had said.
On Sunday Bahujan Samaj Party’s former MLA from Etmadpur in Agra, Dr Dharampal Singh, and Kunwar Chand Vakil, BSP’s former Lok Sabha candidate from Agra, joined the SP. Yadav said that with the joining of these leaders, SP would be strengthened in Agra and adjoining districts.