Appartments alloted (left), CM Yogi (agencies)
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday handed over keys to allottees of flats, built on land recovered from the illegal possession of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in the upscale Dalibagh area of Lucknow, a statement said.The flats were distributed to 72 beneficiaries from EWS (economic weaker section) during a ceremony organised at Ekta Van, located opposite the director general of police’s residence, the statement added.Adityanath personally handed over keys to 10 allottees in the event. These flats, built under the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel housing scheme, are priced at Rs 10.70 lakh each, with the lottery process for allotment completed on Tuesday, it said.Lucknow development authority (LDA) vice-chairman Prathamesh Kumar said the project is a result of the chief minister’s zero-tolerance policy against the mafia, under which illegal land was freed across the state. The LDA constructed three G+3 blocks comprising 72 flats, each measuring 36.65 square metres, on the approximately 2,322 square metres of land reclaimed from Ansari’s possession, Kumar added.Online registration for the scheme began from October 4 to November 3, with nearly 8,000 registrations, the statement said. Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari (63) died of a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda in Uttar Pradesh on March 28, 2024. He was a five-time MLA from the Mau Sadar seat and was behind bars in UP and Punjab since 2005.Ansari faced over 60 criminal cases, and by September 2022, he had been sentenced in eight different cases by various courts in Uttar Pradesh. He was serving his sentence in Banda Jail and was included in a list of 66 gangsters released by Uttar Pradesh Police last year.