UP: Akhilesh Yadav says BJP govt failed to check cattle smuggling despite seeking votes on the issue

Lucknow, Sep 17 (PTI) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday criticised the ruling BJP over the alleged killing of a 20-year-old NEET aspirant in Gorakhpur by suspected cattle smugglers, saying that despite seeking votes on the promise of ending cattle smuggling, the UP government has failed to curtail such activities in the last nine years.

"The Gorakhpur incident shows that the government's slogan of zero tolerance has become zero," Yadav said at a press conference.

In Gorakhpur, the victim, Deepak Gupta, was allegedly killed in a confrontation between cattle smugglers and villagers on Monday night, prompting protests by locals.

The SP chief alleged that the BJP was encouraging such illegal trade. "Questions have been raised many times that people of the Bharatiya Janata Party have worked to promote such business (cattle slaughter), and as a result, India is number one in (meat) exports and many people have also invested in it," he claimed.

They were taking votes in the name of banning cattle slaughter, but "even after 9 years, smuggling is taking place there and a young man has lost his life", the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Yadav also extended his critique to alleged land-grabbing activities. "The Bharatiya Janata Party and its associates are constantly trying to grab valuable land, and information about this has been coming from different districts at different times," he alleged.

He said that similar reports are coming from Varanasi and now from Gorakhpur, where a "scam is going on on a large scale regarding land". PTI CDN HIG RT RT