The Hindu : Cong. to gift land to Dalit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 23, 2002

National

National

Cong. to gift land to Dalit

LUCKNOW DEC. 22. The Congress in Uttar Pradesh has purchased a land for the Dalit, Ram Bhajan Kori, whose house was reportedly demolished in Amethi by a local BJP leader.

The issue had snowballed into a standoff between the Chief Minister and BSP leader, Mayawati, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

The party in Amethi would soon start a "shramdan" to construct a house at the land purchased by the All-India Congress Committee at the behest of Ms. Vadra, who is the overall in-charge of Ms. Gandhi's parliamentary constituency.

Ms. Vadra would gift the house to Ram Bhajan after the completion of construction, party sources said.

The AICC purchased one "biswa" (1,361 square feet) of land for Rs. 12,000 for Ram Bhajan, adjacent to the spot where his earlier shanty stood, the UPCC chief spokesperson, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, said.

On November 22, Ms. Vadra stormed into the Sangrampur police station in Amethi to lodge a complaint that Ram Bhajan's house in Punnpur village had allegedly been demolished by a local BJP leader, Babban Singh, on November 6.

UNI

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