New Delhi/Lucknow, May 16 (IANS) Taking the battle against the Mayawati government a step further, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday took a team of farmers from Bhatta-Parsol village in Greater Noida, which was hit by violence over land acquisition, to meet the prime minister and complained about "repression" of farmers seeking higher compensation from the Uttar Pradesh government.

 
  Less than a week after he skilfully dodged the Uttar Pradesh administration to visit Bhatta-Parsol, Gandhi Monday took eight farmers from the area to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Gandhi and alleged that women had been raped and people had found 74 heaps of ashes with dead bodies inside after the May 7 violence when villagers clashed with police.
 
 The farmers were from the affected villages, including Bhatta-Parsaul and Acheypur in Gautum Budh Nagar of Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi said he was "very concerned" about the brutality against farmers and had facilitated their meeting with the prime minister so that they could put forward their views. 
 
 "There is a set of large 74 heaps of ash there with dead bodies inside. Everybody in the village knows it. We can give you pictures. Women have been raped, people have been thrashed. Houses have been destroyed," Gandhi told reporters.
 
  Gandhi also handed over pictures of burnt bodies, ashes with bones and ransacked houses to the prime minister and later to the media.
 
 "The issues are more fundamental with regard to these villages. In a large number of villages in Uttar Pradesh, all down the Agra highway, where state oppression is being used, people are being murdered, women being raped, people have been thrashed and houses destroyed," he said.
 
 Asked why the centre has not yet brought an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act though he had met the prime minister last year with the same demand, Gandhi said it was a complex legislation.
 
 "We are committed to the Land Acquisition Act. Land acquisition is a complicated piece of legislation that we are working at," he said, adding that the party was confident that it will be passed in the monsoon session of parliament beginning mid-July.
 
 Gandhi said the prime minister gave a patient hearing to the farmers.
 
 The farmers also gave a memorandum to the prime minister saying that over the past two years, the Uttar Pradesh government had forcibly taken over their land without following the due process under Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
 
 The farmers said the Uttar Pradesh government had unleashed "a reign of terror" since May 7 and men had been shot by the police and their bodies burnt and many men were missing.
 
 The memorandum said that many of their family members had been put behind bars in false cases and were intimidated in prison.
 
  The Mayawati government, reacting to the allegations, issued a late night statement terming the allegations of rape and murder as a "bunch of lies".
 
 "Apparently, Rahul Gandhi had resorted to issuing such a baseless and wild allegations simply because his party had failed to carry out the necessary amendments in the hackneyed law that was detrimental to the interest of the farmer."
 
 In another statement, the Mayawati government said that it was paying higher compensation to villagers for acquired land in comparison to the central government.
 
 "Farmers were being paid at the rate of Rs.44 lakh per acre for their land acquired in Noida, Rs.36 lakh per acre in Greater Noida, between Rs.22 lakh to Rs.35 lakh per acre for land acquired for Yamuna Expressway in different districts,” it said.
 
  Four people, including two policemen, were killed May 7 when villagers clashed with policemen for higher compensation for their lands acquired by the Uttar Pradesh government for developmental projects.
 
 The Congress has also announced a rally in Mayawati's native village of Badalpur next month to keep up the momentum of its agitation against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government on issues concerning the farmers. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are visiting Varanasi on Wednesday to attend a party meeting.
 
 Assembly polls will be held in Uttar Pradesh next year and the Congress has been vociferously raising issues concerning the farmers.