UP to ensure status quo at Dadri; VP presses ahead with march

Lucknow, Aug 16 (UNI) A confrontation slowly built up when the Uttar Pradesh government today said it would maintain the status quo ''at all costs'' at the Reliance Energy's Dadri Power Project where former Prime Minister V P Singh's Jan Morcha plans to hold a protest rally at the project site tomorrow.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav asserted at a rally at Mainpuri that Dadri Power Project would be completed despite roadblocks created by Congress and other forces but Mr V P Singh said he would defy a ban on his attendance at the protest rally of the farmers affected by the private power plant project.

''We are committed to completing the project at Dadri whereas leaders like V P Singh, Raj Babbar and Congress are putting spanners to derail the power plant,'' Mr Mulayam Singh alleged.

Mr Yadav said ''these people do not want any development and are only interested in petty politics.'' While the UP government affirmed it would not allow any violation of the Allahabad High Court directives at the power project site, Mr V P Singh told newspersons at his residence in New Delhi, after the district authorities of Gautam Buddha Nagar banned his entry into its territory, the UP police could not suppress the voices of the farmers by such directives and he certainly would take part in the rally.

He said the authorities had acquired 2,500 acres of agricultural lands for the Reliance Energy Corporation but the project could have taken off with a mere 350 acres of land.

Various alliance partners of Jan Morcha, meanwhile, said they would press ahead with their protest march.

Police sources here said the entire area has been sealed to ensure the protestors do not enter the project site. But Jan Morcha had yesterday claimed some its activists have already managed to sneak in to carry forward with the plan.

In view of the High Court directive to the state government to maintain a status quo at the Dadri power project site, the government would use all administrative means to prevent any attempt to violate the HC directives, State Principal Secretary (Home) S K Aggarwal told a press conference here.

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