Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday demanded a judicial inquiry into "atrocities" on farmers demanding higher compensation for their land that has been taken for a highway project in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida area.
"There are two issues: land acquisition and farmer killings that happened May 7. We are agitating against the atrocities of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government on poor farmers. There should be a judicial inquiry to probe how many farmers have been killed in the incident," Singh told Times Now channel.
"The inquiry should be called before the Uttar Pradesh government destroys all the evidence. We have ourselves seen heaps of dead bodies in the area," added Singh. The farmers are agitating for higher compensation for land acquired for the 156-km Yamuna Expressway, linking New Delhi with Agra, a dream project of chief minister Mayawati. Singh said: "Mayawati has become an autocrat. All the men have left the village, it's only wives and children who are left there.
I haven't seen such a thing happen in 40 years of political career." On Saturday, police and agitating farmers fought a pitched battle in Bhatta Parsaul village that left four dead, including two policemen.