New Delhi: After putting the bureaucratic set-up and the police administration in line with the changed regime, the Mayawati Government in Uttar Pradesh in now turning its attention to political foes, read the friends of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh.
And guess, who tops the list in this category: the Big B.
"UP mein dum hai, kyunki jurm yahaan kam hai (UP has what it takes because crime is much less here)." This slogan in Big B's booming voice rang all through the course of UP elections and Amitabh Bachchan distinctly sided with Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party even though he never showed up in any political platform.
But Mayawati being someone who is not known to forget and forgive her political enemies, she has reportedly been trying to dig up an old land deal involving the Bachchan in the Barabanki district of the state.
Mumbai's DNA newspaper quoted government sources as saying that the issue was discussed at Mayawati’s very first Cabinet meeting on Monday and it is now being scrutinised in the Secretariat.
The newspaper, however, said that on record, the Mayawati Government has not ordered any action. But an official at the Secretariat told the newspaper that her office "is vetting all documents related to decisions taken by the Mulayam Singh Government, which were against public interest or outright illegal.”
For Amitabh Bachchan, there is a lot at stake in the Barabanki land deal. For, it was on the basis of this land that the Barabanki magistrate had certified him as a farmer in 1983. Bachchan needed this certificate to purchase 20 acres of agricultural land in Lonavala in 2000.
The Bachchan senior apparently produced these records when the Pune district authorities had asked him to prove his status as a farmer.
Under the Maharashtra’s Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1963, only farmers can buy such land. The Pune district authorities had issued a notice to Bachchan in 2005 asking him to prove his status as a farmer.
"She is incensed with Bachchan's ad campaign for the SP," a bureaucrat close to the Chief Minister told the Mumbai newspaper.
She has asked her officials to probe all cases where land plots were virtually "gifted away" to SP's big sympathisers and big corporate houses.
Anil Ambani, too, may bear the brunt of Mayawati's ire, the newspaper said. The CM's Secretariat has already asked for files relating to the Rs 15,000 crore Dadri project of Reliance Energy Limited.
The Mulayam Singh Government had acquired 2,500 acres of prime agricultural land from farmers in Dadri (Ghaziabad) at a measly price and handed it over to REL.
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