Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh today took a dig at the ruling Samajwadi Party over reports of a senior state minister “tricking” members of Valmiki community in Rampur to convert to Islam.
“The bid to displace poor is wrong. As far as conversion is concerned several points have come to the fore,” state Congress president Nirmal Khatri said.
Khatri said there were reports that under the influence of someone a group of Dalits proposed to changed their religion but it was rejected by the clerics on the ground that it was “greed oriented”.
Khatri said the government should look into the demands and take justified action.
BJP too took a dig at the ruling Samajwadi Party. “A senior minister of the SP, which had been attacking BJP on the conversion issue, himself had tricked people of Dalit community in the name of saving their houses,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged.
“The government must have chalked out a rehabilitation policy before deciding to displace poor Dalits. Our party is and will always stand by their cause,” Pathak said.
Members of Valmiki community in Rampur ended their nine-day hunger strike today after assurances that a proposal against demolition of their homes would be sent to the state government “within 15 days”.
National Commission for Scheduled Castes vice chairman Raj Kumar interacted with the fasting members and said the district administration would send its proposal against demolition of their homes within 15 days.
Seven members of the community had sat on a hunger strike after the municipal board declared a locality of Valmikis as unauthorised and decided to raze to ground the “illegal possessions”.
–PTI