UP Elections 2017: Rampur morphs into modernity under Azam Khan 'reign'

Once typical of your average Indian small town, Rampur has undergone a dramatic transformation thanks to its powerful legislator and state minister Azam Khan. But this growth is "Azam Khan centric" and has little to do with them, say angry locals.

This election is actually about development vs coercion, alleges a resident at the famous Arabian Tadka restaurant in the heart of city while conceding that Rampur has seen unparalleled development under Khan, the state's public works minister. "The poor have faced the cruelty of Khan. We have been deprived of our lands, livelihood… in a majority of cases, without proper compensation, to pave way for this progress," he said.

There is fear in the air. Trades for which the region was famous and was once second only to Kanpur in terms of industrialization are gone. "We had a cycle factory, a matchbox factory, a textile mill, a dairy plant and many other industries," said Dr. Mehmood Ali Khan, a surgeon.

Rather than revive the Raza Textile Mill, which gave employment to many, the administration is building a new jail in its premises. Skilled artisans involved in zariwork, knife making and fur caps are now rickshaw pullers. In the markets, there's a new slogan doing whispered rounds, "Banao Beedi, Challau Rickshaw..Yeh Hai Aali Jinab Ki Shiksha (Made bidis, run rickshaws, that is Aali jnaab's education)".

The slogan lays open the resentment in a city that now looks like a habitat anywhere in the West with paved lit streets, dividers, malls, jogging tracks, particularly in the area leading to what is often termed his private fiefdom, the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jowhar University.

Every road in Rampur now leads to the university. Hoping to be called the second Sir Syed (the founder of Aligarh Muslim University), Khan has been working hard to collect funds for the Jowhar university of which he is lifetime chancellor. An engineering college has already started and a massive building for a medical college is under construction.

In a very sarcastic tone, Khan told dna, who is lifetime chancellor points that he was building Rashtrapati Bhawan, South Block and North Block here. Already the municipal board building, he has built is shaped like Parliament.

In the midst of university is his office called the Sachha Ashram. Such is the splurge that the Uttar Pradesh Bridge Corporation is building the state's longest flyover at the cost of Rs.200 crore that goes over forests and fields and links the back gate of the university to nowhere. Nobody knows why this flyover is coming up.

Khan Zulfiqar Khan, an advocate, said that the Corporation had occupied 40 bighas of agriculture land owned by him and his brother for the flyover. Another flyover has been constructed at the cost of Rs.20 crore. It starts from Azam Khan's home in the old city and goes up to the road leading to the civil lines. Only Khan's cavalcade plies on it, said locals.

The district magistrate Amit Kishore says that the state's longest flyover of nearly 4.7 km is being constructed to provide easy access to— Jauhar University. But from where? He has no answers.

The flyover will land in front of Jauhar University's gate towards Kosi river. For this flyover 112 acres of land has been acquired. In contrast one bridge in Swar connecting 200 villages required only Rs 17 crore, but kept pending for years. Now the work has started but is progressing at snail's pace. People and vehicles have to pass through the river Kosi bed to reach Swara and Tanda tehsils. Bigger vehciles have to traverse a circuitous path via Moradabad.

An amount of Rs.20 crore was spent for an artificial lake inside Jauhar University, but Rs.198 crore for compensation to farmers was refused," said Tanveer Ahmed Khan, the BSP candidate and a radiologist by training.

Manipulating the law

There is also Azam Khan's resort in Rampur near civil lines on the University road for which a graveyard of the Nawabs was demolished. Soon after the resort came up, the state government in Lucknow declared the area a green zone. He built a magnificent 45,000 litre water tank near his residence. Once it was completed, he cautioned people about depleting groundwater and his department restricted building of any tank beyond the capacity of 20,000 litres.

Bisecting the city of Rampur is the Mahatma Gandhi Samadhi, standing tall and beautiful. The erstwhile Nawab Raza Ai Khan had brought ashes of Gandhi to the city and had built a small platform around in 1949. Azam Khan changed it around to the grand structure it is today by building a magnificent white marble lattice structure, a parallel with Delhi's Rajghat.

There are now plans to demolish the walls of the historic Rampur fort. It has already started from its Eastern wall where shops have been built and allotted to people. Above the shops, one can still see the canopies of old wall, reminiscent of the city's history.

In 2012, he wanted private English-medium schools to reduce fees by 20 percent. Amongst those which didn't give in was St Mary's Convent, and a turn in the road in front of it was closed soon after. Greenwood School, which also held out, faced the threat of its back gate being closed by the municipal board. Khan has now started his own English medium chain of schools.

Even the stretch leading to his house on Jail Road is blocked by a barrier.

In a city where the 67-year-old has spent most of his life, there are few willing to talk about him.

"He is now a modern day pharaoh," said Manzoor Ali Khan, a former Congress MLA who defeated Azam in 1977.

Haji Kamal Akhtar, a Rampur-based lawyer who practises in the Allahabad High Court, was once friends with Azam at Aligarh Muslim University. Relations later soured, and Akhtar says he paid the price. "He is not bothered about risks or his political stature. Anyone opposing him will face raids from the power department, or civil authorities for 'encroachment' etc."

Dr Taj Mohammad Khan, Azam's roommate at AMU, also claims to know what that feels like. "My father opposed him in one election. After that our land was acquired for a flyover. My 80-year-old father was slapped with charges of preventing government work. He died of the shock. I have approached the courts."