SP govt `insensitive` to riot victims: Beni

Lucknow: Accusing the SP government of being "insensitive," Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Thursday said it was busy "having fun" in Saifai while Muzaffarnagar riot victims were suffering in relief camps.

"Even when someone dies in the neighbourhood, food is not prepared in homes, but these people are busy in mauj-masti (fun and frolic)....Crores of rupees of the public exchequer have been spent in Saifai," Verma told reporters here. He was referring to the fortnight-long Saifai festival, which ended last night with Bollywood stars participating in the celebrations. To a question on the cultural extravaganza in SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav`s native village of Saifai, he said, "Nothing could be worse than this. Channels have shown a lot of it but these people are shameless." Asking the Samajwadi Party government to not be so "insensitive", he said children were dying in Muzaffarnagar. In a "free country", people of a particular community were forced to leave their homes and live in camps, he said. The union minister claimed that after his announcement about steel camps steel for riot victims, the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar were bulldozed. "Steel Authority of India has already distributed packets with ration for one month to the riot victims and we have allocated Rs 10 crore. But it would be given only when the list of beneficiaries is provided for rehabilitation or else it might be misused on mujara (dance)," he said. Alleging that Muzaffarnagar riots were instigated by Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav for polarising votes in their favour, Verma claimed that Yadav was pushing Modi by claiming that BJP`s seats would increase in the coming polls.