UP govt trying to displace Muzaffarnagar riot victims: BSP leader

Muzaffarnagar: A BSP leader has alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government is trying to displace people from the relief camps in severe cold conditions.

BSP leader Swami Prasad Morya also alleged that BJP and SP are behind the communal riots which broke out in Muzaffarnagar in September last year in which 60 persons were killed. Morya visited the relief camps at Kandhla, Malakpur, and Barnawi and Sanjak in Shamli district with former BSP minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui, State BSP President Ram Achal Rajbhar, BSP MPs Munkad Ali and Kadir Rana yesterday. The state government is trying to displace people from the relief camps in severe cold conditions, Morya alleged. The leader also distributed blankets at the Sanjak relief camp. Earlier on Dec 31, as many as 483 riot-hit families camping in Loi village left for "safer places" on December 31. There are no more relief camps left in Muzaffarnagar district, while neighbouring Shamli still has four camps. There were more than 510 families living in the Loi camp after the riots broke out in September. According to a high-level committee constituted by UP government, at least 34 children below the age of 12 years have perished in the relief camps in the Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts. More than 60 persons were killed and over 40,000 displaced in communal violence that broke out in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in September last year.