Mathura clashes could have been avoided if HC orders were followed: UP Governor

Voicing concern over the clashes he said whatever happened in the district was unprecedented

The Mathura clashes could have been avoided if the Akhilesh Yadav government had followed the high court order in a timely manner, Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik said on Thursday.

Voicing concern over the clashes that left two policemen among 29 dead the Governor said whatever happened in the district was unprecedented.

"Whatever happened in Mathura was unprecedented. The death of two police officers besides the other people is a matter of grave concern," he told reporters.

Naik said that if the Allahabad High Court's order for removing encroachment at Jawahar Bagh had been followed, the clashes could have been avoided.

"We saw what happened when the state government could not implement the Allahabad High Court's orders for removing encroachment at Jawahar Bagh. If the court's directions had been followed in a timely manner, we could have avoided such an incident," he said.

Naik, who had directed the government to issue a status paper on illegal encroachments in the state on Wednesday, said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had apprised him of details of the Mathura incident.

Naik said the government should take back possession of such properties and get the illegal occupants evicted in order to ward off recurrence of Jawahar Bagh-type incidents anywhere in the state.

In various districts, illegal occupants have grabbed government land and local courts have also issued eviction order from time to time but to no avail, Naik had said in a release on Wednesday.

In a letter to the chief minister, Naik had asked the state government to issue a 'white paper' on illegal encroachment on land of parks, grazing grounds, ponds and public buildings by individuals or organisations, a Raj Bhawan release said on Wednesday.

In the clashes, 29 people, including two police officers were killed and a large number of people injured.