LUCKNOW, Aug 25: Chief Minister Mayawati's campaign to honour past Dalit leaders received a setback when a mob of locals, reportedly led by Samajwadi Party workers, damaged a park being built in memory of Dalit poet Sant Ravidas in Varanasi on Saturday.

According to reports, hundreds of viallgers from Seer Govardhan, the birthplace of the poet in Varanasi district, stormed the park, disrupted construction work and hurled stones at vehicles of the State government.

They were said to have been instigated by Samajwadi Party leaders. Mayawati was scheduled to unveil a statue of the poet in the park on September 3.

The villagers alleged that the Government had forcibly acquired 22 acres of their land for development of the park without giving the compensation promised to them by the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA).

On Thursday last, SP leaders reportedly instigated the incensed locals to storm the park on Saturday if they were not paid adequate compensation by then. This was a part of their Hulla Bol agitation in the State.

Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is said to have called upon his party workers to continue the agitation. Local SP leaders claimed that they were issued instructions by Mulayam Singh to continue the fight to ``safeguard'' the interests of villagers who have been ``rendered homeless'' by the te Government.

The mob violence comes close on the heels of another similar incident in Babrala when SP leaders reportedly instigated locals to fight against the management of a company which had allegedly acquired their land but failed to provide jobs as promised. This led to a police lathi-charge on the mob and the issue was effectively turned into a political weapon by the SP to embarrass the Government.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.