Chandigarh, December 2
Police used water cannons on Wednesday when Punjab Youth Congress workers jumped over barricades trying to march towards the home of Haryana’s chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, here, protesting the new agricultural laws.
The president of the Punjab Youth Congress, Barinder Dhillon, and several others were detained by the Chandigarh police.
Activists wanted to ‘gherao’ Khattar’s house to protest against the use of water cannons and tear gas against Punjab farmers last week, when the Haryana police had tried to prevent them from entering the state to continue their march of “Delhi Chalo”.
“We came here to wake up the Khattar government,” Dhillon told reporters.
“We will continue to fight until farmers get justice,” he said, calling on all sectors of society to support the unrest.
Chandigarh police used water cannons for the first time against congressional workers at barricades set up about two miles before Khattar’s official residence.
But some activists managed to get close to the CM’s house after jumping over the police barricades. Again, water cannons were used to stop them.
The police arrested several of them. Some activists claimed that the police used batons to disperse them.
Chandigarh Chief Police Superintendent Kuldeep Chahal was present at the scene.
The roads leading to Khattar’s house were sealed off and there was a heavy police deployment nearby.
The protesters had previously gathered near the Chandigarh headquarters of the Punjab Congress. They raised slogans against the BJP government in the Center and in Haryana, calling them “anti-farmers”.
Thousands of farmers, most of them from Punjab, are now gathering on the borders of Delhi to protest against the three new laws enacted at the Center in September.
Farmers unions claim that the new laws will lead to the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving farmers at the mercy of corporate companies. But the government says the system will continue and the laws will give farmers more options to sell their crops.
Agricultural leaders met with Union ministers on Tuesday, but the two sides failed to break the deadlock. PTI
