The Uttar Pradesh government should roll back its decision to convert the Ambedkar hostel in Ghaziabad into a detention centre for illegal foreigners, said Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday. The BSP chief said that her party's government had built the hostel for the benefit of Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe students of the State and its conversion into a detention centre by the Yogi Adityanath government is proof of its "anti-Dalit workstyle".

"The conversion of multi-storey Dr Ambedkar SC/ST student hostel, Ghaziabad, built by BSP government into detention centres for illegal foreigners is saddening and highly condemnable. This is another proof of the government's anti-Dalit workstyle. BSP demands that the government take this back," Mayawati's tweet read.

According to reports the first detention centre for illegal foreigners in UP's Ghaziabad is likely to be operational in the weeks ahead. Officials had said that the necessary changes in the hostel premises had been carried out to ensure it can serve as a detention centre for those foreign nationals who are to be deported back to their native countries.