LUCKNOW: A day after Congress general secretary Priayanka Gandhi Vadra’s meeting with the families of Umbha village massacre victims at Chunar Guest house in Mirzapur, UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Sunday visited affected village in Sonbhadra, met victims personally and hinted at the links of culprits with Samajwadi Party after initial probe.
The CM also accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears over the incident which he said was the result of their sins and their attempts to usurp rights of tribals during it rule.
While meeting families of those who lost life in the massacre over long standing dispute on 90 bigha land in Umbha village under Ghorawal police station area in the tribal district, Adityanath promised the villagers all help and assured them of bearing expenses of treatment of those injured in the shooting. The CM was flanked by newly-appointed UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, UP DGP O P Singh and chief secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey.
While distributing the cheques to the victims’ families, the CM announced that the amount of financial relief would be raised to Rs 18.5 lakh from five lakh to the kin of deceased and injured would be given Rs 2.5 lakh against Rs 50,000 annpunced earlier.
Last Wednesday, ten persons from Gond tribe were killed in a shootout by hundreds of henchmen of village head Yagya Dutt while attempting to take possession of land they had been ploughing since independence.
During his visit, the CM met each and every family, took the children in his lap and consoled the sobbing women assuring them all help, security and justice. “I will not let you suffer any more. I had to come to meet you two days back but then it was the day of cremation, so I postponed my visit by two days. I will keep coming to you. I will ensure strict punishment to the culprits,” said the CM while consoling the villagers.
“A separate police chowki will be set up in the village so that villagers in distress could approach the cops for help. Besides, an Aganbadi centre and a fire station will also be set up in the village soon,” he assured the Umbha village.
Later, interacting with media persons, the CM explained the steps being taken to avert any such incident in future. He also pointed out that not only Umbha but in other villages scores of similar disputes over land being ploughed by tribals were pending.
“I have taken note of all such other disputes as well and they will be settled at the earliest,” he claimed.
On being questioned over Congress’ role as had been claimed by him, the CM said Umbha incident was result of the sins of the Congress parry whose leaders are shedding crocodile tears over the incident now.
There had been a sense of anger among the victim villagers as no one had visited them after the massacre. The CM also assured the villagers to ensured their ownership rights on the land which they were ploughing.
However, earlier, the government had come under flak with opposition parties charging it with trying to protect the accused. The Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, the Left and the Trinamool Congress had hit out at the government on Saturday.