Hours before the commencement of the Budget session, Haryana Congress workers on Monday staged a demonstration here against the Centre’s amendments to the land Acquisition Act. Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda along with Haryana Pradesh Congress committee president Ashok Tanwar and some party MlAs, led a march from the party headquarters to the Assembly in a bid to disrupt the session. However, they were stopped by the police midway as prohibitory orders were in place. Water canons were also used on Congress protesters following which many of them courted arrest, said police.
The protesters described the land bill as “draconian” and shouted slogans over “acute” fertiliser shortage and a host of other issues. Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar said that the Congress would continue to protest against the anti-people policies of the state government and the Centre. Congress legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry said Haryana government had completely failed to fulfill its promises made before the assembly elections last year. The Congress protest was on the issue of amendments to the land Acquisition Act, urea shortage, White Paper on the state’s finances and non-implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report.