Hundreds of Indian National lok Dal (INlD) workers from Haryana on Wednesday flooded the Parliament Street in the heart of the national Capital to protest over the Sutlej Yamuna link (SYl) canal issue, prompting police to resort to lathicharge.
Haryana’s main opposition party, INlD initially protested at Jantar Mantar and later, poured onto the Parliament Street mid-afternoon, barely a few metres shy of the perimeter of the Parliament House.
leader of opposition in Haryana Assembly and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Chautala while talking to the mediapersons in New Delhi said that the Centre should intervene in the SYl issue and get it constructed as per Supreme Court directions.
Over 6,800 panchayats (village councils) of Haryana had submitted memorandums to the INlD seeking construction of the SYl canal. We will submit these to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demand immediate construction of the canal. Getting water through the SYl is Haryana’s right and we are not begging for it from anyone, said Chautala.
The protesters waving green flags later approached the Parliament House Annexe building gate, prompting the Delhi Police personnel on security duty to put up barricades right outside the gate. As protesters tried to push through, the police lathicharged them.
A few women protesters who managed to go past the barricades were allegedly manhandled by male policemen.
A water canon was also brought in but not used and personnel of the paramilitry forces were asked to push the protesters back. The Delhi Police quickly threw a security ring around Parliament House and restricted traffic and pedestrian movement in the vicinity.
The Parliament Street is a very high-security zone and therefore police and paramilitary forces on duty were sent into a tizzy as the agitators sought to march towards the Parliament complex. The Parliament’s Budget session had resumed on March 9 after a month-long break.
later, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the INlD met under the chairmanship of INlD Haryana president Ashok Arora and Abhay Chautala and decided to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and submit him a complaint against Delhi Police.
The PAC decided that an INlD delegation will meet Rajnath Singh and demand a strict action against those who resorted to lathicharge on party workers including women and senior citizens on Wednesday.
Ashok Arora alleged that the INlD protestors wanted to hand over a memorandum to Prime Minister and were marching towards the Parliament peacefully, however, the Delhi Police resorted to lathicharge without giving any warning to us.
Many INlD workers including women and old aged people were injured due to this, he added.
On February 23, the INlD leaders were arrested for breaching prohibitory orders by Punjab Police when they were marching towards Punjab to undertake the digging of the SYl canal. Two MPs, 18 legislators and 73 other INlD leaders were arrested on February 23 by the Punjab Police and were later sent to judicial custody till February 27 by a court in Rajpura and lodged in Patiala jail.
After the INlD’s much -hyped call for digging the SYl canal in Punjab had ended without success, the party had announced to gherao the Parliament on this issue.
Notably, ever since its creation in 1966, Haryana has been engaged in a dispute over sharing of river waters with Punjab.
The Supreme Court in a verdict last November had held as unconstitutional the 2004 law passed by Punjab to terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYl) canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states.