Lucknow: The mayor of Ayodhya, along with two BJP leaders, are on an alleged list of “illegal colonists”. Allegedly Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) has prepared. According to the ADA, the list, a copy of which is with ThePrint, mentions 40 places in the district where individuals allegedly engaged in “illegal colonization”.
The list includes the names of sitting Ayodhya MLA Ved Prakash Gupta, former Milkipur MLA Gorakhnath Baba and Ayodhya Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay.
Speaking to media persons on Sunday, ADA Vice President Vishal Singh, however, said that the “leaked list” under consideration is the “preliminary” list prepared on August 6.
“The list has been prepared yesterday (Saturday) only. The Junior Engineer concerned with the enforcement has been directed to visit the area and take action after investigation. Whose name has been included in the list, it will be known after investigation. On Saturday also the media persons spoke to me and I had informed them that a list would be prepared and action would be taken after investigation.
He also said that it is not the ADA’s aim to malign the image of any political personality, adding, “An inquiry will be conducted and the list will be exposed to all.”
Asked exclusively by a journalist whether the list running on social media was “fake”, Singh replied: “Whether it is fake or not, it can be known only after investigation and the investigation is so far by the ADA. It’s an internal matter.”
ThePrint reached out to Ved Prakash Gupta over the phone, but did not receive a comment till the time this report was published. Phone calls and messages to Ayodhya Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay and Gorakhnath Baba also remained unanswered. This report will be updated upon receipt of feedback.
Launching a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav shared a newspaper clipping of the issue on Twitter and wrote: “We have said this before and are repeating again that the corrupt within BJP should at least spare Ayodhya.”
The purported list released by the ADA mentions 40 different areas of Ayodhya where illegal colonies have allegedly grown.
The said list, titled ‘Place of Illegal Plotting in Ayodhya and Name of Colonizer’, has two columns, namely “Name of Illegal Colonizer” and “Location”.
The names of MLA Ved Prakash Gupta, Mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay and former MLA Gorakhnath Baba are mentioned in the column “Names of Illegal Colonizers”. Similar mentions in the “Place” column say: “Jaipuria School”, “Parikrama Marg from Tarapur Rajouri and Chak Gaura Patti Manjha to Jamthara Dam area” and “beyond the BJP office at Saadatganj” in the name of Ved Prakash Gupta, Gorakhnath. Next up are Baba and Rishikesh Upadhyay respectively.
Ayodhya Development Authority had deployed five bulldozers in July this year demolished Illegal colonies spread in the floodplain of river Saryu between Chak Gaura and Patti Manjha Jamthara.
Earlier, speaking to media persons on Saturday, the ADA vice-chairman had said that the authority had identified 40 places where “illegal colonies” had formed in Ayodhya district.
“At present, 40 illegal colonies have been identified. We are destroying them one by one. The names of the people involved in the horse-trading have been identified. We are getting them investigated and strict action will be taken against those doing business of property here.”
Singh, who is also the Municipal Commissioner of Ayodhya, had appealed to the public not to attempt to construct buildings in such illegal colonies and apply online for approval of their building maps.
ThePrint reached out to Singh via call but his number was switched off. This report will be updated upon receipt of feedback.
The ADA Vice-Chairman also urged the District Magistrate to identify the persons who had approached the local administration for getting such illegal properties registered.
Vishal Singh said, “We have requested the DM that if there are repeated registries with the intention of illegal plotting, mutation of such property should not be done and it should be ensured that such properties are not registered.”
ThePrint reached the office of Ayodhya DM Nitish Kumar, but a member of his team said “the matter pertains to the ADA and an answer should be sought from him”.
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Only 5% illegal colonies in the list: Ex-SP MLA
Reacting to the alleged list, Tejnarayan ‘Pawan’ Pandey of Samajwadi Party, former MLA from Ayodhya, demanded a fair probe into the matter.
Pandey, in a letter to the Ayodhya Divisional Commissioner, has demanded that all revenue records relating to the allegations be confiscated and the record room of the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation’s residence of documents be sealed.
The letter, a copy of which is with ThePrint, read: “The news about illegal conspiracy in Ayodhya is shameful. Illegal colonies are flourishing in Ayodhya and Faizabad. ADA, Nazul and many corrupt officials of revenue department are part of this maze.
But Pandey claims that the illegal colonies mentioned in the so-called ADA list constitute only 5 per cent of the total illegal colonies that have sprung up in the country. Metropolitan The area of Ayodhya-Faizabad, on Nazul land (non-agricultural government land within the limits of Ayodhya Municipal Corporation) and in about 40 villages bordering Ayodhya.
“This has been going on for the last five years, thanks to the nexus between the BJP and the corrupt officials of Ayodhya. Ayodhya-Faizabad accounts for only 5 percent of the total illegal colonies flourishing in this list. If the chief minister is really honest and does not approve of this, then there should be a fair investigation into unauthorized sale-purchase and illegal colonization in Shri Ram’s land,” he told ThePrint.
(This report has been updated to reflect the recent statement by the Ayodhya Development Authority)
(Edited by Amritansh Arora)
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