Cong demands probe by sitting judge of HC in 'Dadri incident'

Lucknow, July 9 (UNI) Slamming the Mulayam Singh Yadav government for using force on farmers carrying out ''token protest' at Dadri, Uttar Pradesh Congress today demanded a probe into the incident by a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court.

A delegation of UP Congress committee led by legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari met state governor T V Rajeswar and handed him a memorandum demanding the probe by a sitting HC judge and a white paper on the Dadri land scam.

Mr Rajeswar assured the delegation to look on the issue 'seriously' during their over 20 minutes interaction at the Rajbhawan this noon.

The UP government said the farmers and the leaders were prevented from proceeding to Dadri in pursuance of the Allahabad High Court order in which the state government had been asked to ensure no outsider entered the 2,800 acre premises of the proposed power project.

Mr Tiwari claimed the agitators had in no way disregarded the High Court order. ''In fact, it was a token protest in a democratic set up. By using force, the state government has disregarded the court.'' The party had demanded the UP government to explain how much land was required for the Reliance Power project and how much land was alloted and why the project had not yet started.

Yesterday, former prime minister and Jan Morcha leader Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Jan Dal president Raj Babbar alongwith 15 supporters were arrested in Ghaziabad district, while proceeding to enter the premises of Reliance's Dadri Power project.

The arrests came after the farmers staged a demonstration at the project site against the acquisition of land in favour of Reliance.

The protest also saw incidents of heavy stone pelting, in which atleast 35 policemen and five farmers were injured.

However, both the leaders were kept in a housing board guest house at Vasundhara and later released in the evening.

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