Lucknow: Voicing its strong opposition to the proposed Ganga Expressway from Noida to Ballia, the BJP today said "another Nandigram" would be witnessed in Uttar Pradesh if the Mayawati government failed to abandon the project immediately.

"Lakhs of farmers would be displaced as their land will be acquired under the project triggering huge resentment among them," BJP's state unit president Ramapati Ram Tripathi told reporters here. The farmers would have no option but to wage a struggle against the government on the lines of Nandigram, he said and demanded that the project be scrapped forthwith.

"The project will also pollute the Ganga river as a large number of industrial units will come up on the banks of the river," he claimed. Tripathi had a dig at the Mayawati government for what he claimed anti-people and anti-farmer policies and said that the BJP would not allow the government to compromise on the interest of the farmers. He referred to the reports of farmers burning their cane in the fields and alleged that there appears to be a nexus between the sugar mill owners and the government.

"The government has money for setting up parks and memorials after Ambedkar and Kanshiram but it has no concern for the cane farmers," he said. Tripathi said the party had staged dharnas and sit-ins in 46 districts of the state to highlight the alleged failures of the government. The second phase of the agitation would start from November 25 next and conclude on December 5 during which party workers would fan out to the villages and take up issues concerning the common man.

Source : PTI