NTPC Blast: Mayawati accuses Yogi Adityanath govt of 'criminal negligence'

Lucknow : BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday accused the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh of "criminal negligence" and blamed them for the NTPC tragedy in Rae Bareli in which 37 persons died.

In a statement issued by the Bahujan Samaj Party, the former Chief Minister said that due to the "wrong and anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi government, human life has become cheaper than those of animals".

Slamming the Yogi Adityanath government's decision to change the colour of government buildings, Mayawati said the BJP governments were "wasting public money, but not doing anything to improve the lot of the poor, the marginalised and the weaker sections".

She also criticised the BJP for treating the NTPC blast in Unchahar as a "routine matter".

The blast at the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation boiler took place on October 31. Contractual labourers had claimed that they had warned about the "impending" disaster after the temperature near the furnace was noticed to be steadily rising.