The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members created ruckus in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday over lack of security and other facilities in the parks and memorials constructed by the previous Mayawati government leading to its walkout. The BSP members alleged that as these parks have been left unattended valuable granite slabs were stolen. “In one case thieves used gas cutters to cut the copper plates from the elephants stalled at the B R Ambedkar Memorial in the state capital,” Indrajeet Saroj, a senior party member said.
The issue was raised through an adjournment notice by leader of the opposition in the assembly Swami Prasad during zero hour. He said in an act of political vendetta the Samajwadi Party Government has neglected these monuments. “The staff who was deployed to protect these monuments have been sacked,” he said.
Sparks started flying when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Azam Khan said that these memorials were constructed through hard earned money of the aam aadmi. “As efforts are being made to preserve monuments of mogul sultanat, similarly our government will preserve these monuments built from the “khoon passine ki kamai” of mazdoor,” Khan said. Maurya rushed into the well of the House saying the minister has insulted the dalits. It is a taunt on our icons, he said.
However Khan assured that the government will look into the charges of the BSP members and provide all security in these memorials. In another question about supply of arsenic water by the hand pumps in some areas of western UP, state Rural Development minister Arvind Singh Gope said that prevalence of arsenic has been found in 1219 localities in 51 districts of the state. “A thorough survey is underway of the ground water by dividing the state into six zones. Survey of one zone has been completed so far” he said.
He announced that government has prepared a project to provide pipe drinking water to all the villages by 2022 when the problem of arsenic would end. BSP’s lokendra Singh raised the question alleging that due to arsenic, people were suffering from different disease including cancer in Moradabad and Bijnore districts.