The Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath has walked the talk on their promise of making rioters pay for damaging the public property in the state as Muslims residents of Bulandshahr have paid over Rs 6 lakh to the district magistrate.
Reportedly, a group of Muslim residents of the Upeerkot area handed over a demand draft of Rs 6.27 lakh to District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar and Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh as a token of compensation for the damage caused to public property during clashes on December 20.
The delegation led by a local politician Shakilullah and other dignitaries from the Muslim community in Kotwali city area also handed over a letter to the DM pledging that a repeat of the violence would never occur in future. Bulandshahr was one of the worst-hit areas of anti-CAA violence in UP.
Last Friday, protests against the amended citizenship law in Bulandshahr turned violent, leading to damage of public property. DM Ravindra Kumar said that government vehicles and other properties were damaged by the mob last Friday.
“With this, Bulandshahr has made a good start, they have realised that the government property has been bought from the tax-payers money. It is their own loss and damage,” he said. “The people in Bulandshahr have come with an ‘avedan’ (request) letter and a demand draft of Rs 6,27,507. People have felt this (violence) should not have happened.” he added.
Kumar said the proposal for this move was made in a meeting with the commissioner and the inspector general. “In a meeting with senior officials, a proposal was put regarding the collection and offering to the administration,” he said.
The decision to impose a penalty on rioters comes after Uttar Pradesh government had initiated a crackdown on miscreants who resorted to violence during the protests against the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act.
The Uttar Pradesh government has already identified at least 498 properties to seize them, which belonged to rioters who vandalised public properties in the state during the anti-CAA protest. Notices have been already sent to these protesters regarding the same.
According to a circular, the government has identified the ‘anti-socials’ who caused damage to public property while taking part in anti-CAA protests. It will now confiscate their property to recover the damages. Earlier, the UP government had sealed 50 shops belonging to rioters in Muzaffarnagar who caused damage to public property. The sealed shops are all in the trouble-hit Minakshi Chowk and Kachchi Sadak areas of the town.
Reportedly, at least 82 people from Lucknow, 148 from Meerut, 26 from Sambhal, 79 from Rampur, 13 from Ferozabad, 50 from Kanpur, 73 from Muzzafarnagar, 8 from Mao and 19 from Bulandshahar have been identified by the UP government as those who damaged the public property during the CAA protests in the state from December 10-24.
In the aftermath of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, riots, violence, arson and vandalism by rioting mobs in the name of ‘protests’ against the enactment of the law have taken place across the country.
