Uprooting 83 villages for LIDA is unconstitutional: CPI

Lucknow, July 12 (UNI) Communist Party of India (CPI) today termed the evacuation of 83 villages of Lucknow and Unnao districts for Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA) project 'unconstitutional and unjust'.

Senior CPI leader Ashok Mishra said here the government should first think of alternative employment and rehabilitation of villagers and purchase the land on market price.

Encroaching upon the land without doing the needful is an unconstitutional and non-democratic act, he added.

LIDA was the dream project of former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and carrying foward the project shows that Mayawati's government like the last regime is more concerned about the prosperity of industrialists than the plight of the poor.

Mr Mishra asserted that the government has the right to take public or farmer's land in possession, but only for the benefit of society and after paying the market price for the same. ''Any contradictory action would be considered an act of dictatorship.'' He has asked the government to take the consent of villagers and assuring them of an alternative profession and rehabilitation before implementing the scheme.

UNI