SP to probe into ‘fake charges’ against Azam Khan

Lucknow, July 17 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party has finally decided to stand up for its senior MP Mohd Azam Khan who is facing a slew of charges against him.

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav has appointed a probe committee of party MLAs and MLCs to probe what the party chief spokesperson termed as 'fake cases' against the MP from Rampur.

In a statement, SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said that the 22-member committee led by the Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Parishad Ahmad Hasan would reach Rampur on July 20 to probe into the cases of encroachment of land of farmers recently lodged against Khan.

The committee has been asked to submit its report within three days.

According to the complaint lodged by 26 farmers, Khan, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, had forcibly taken over their land during the Akhilesh Yadav regime.

The Rampur district administration has lodged around two dozen cases against the former minister.

The Yogi Adityanath-led government is now contemplating listing him as a land mafia on the state government's anti-land mafia portal.

Soon after assuming power in 2017, Adityanath had set up the portal to identify land mafia and register complaints of people relating to land grabbing.

Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has also formed a committee to probe allegations of illegal construction on the floodplain of the Kosi River in Rampur by the Jauhar University.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel has directed a joint committee comprising the Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board and the Rampur district magistrate to look into the matter and furnish a report within a month.

The tribunal was hearing a plea by a Lucknow-based journalist Shailesh Singh against illegal construction on the flood plain of the Kosi river at Jauhar Nagar by Mohammad Ali Jauhar University and its office bearers.