Congress party workers, marching towards Punjab Vidhan Sabha to protest against the dilution of land Acquisition Act by the NDA Government, were stopped in their tracks by water cannons and batons of the Chandigarh police on Tuesday.
The party workers clashed with the police, while the State party chief Partap Singh Bajwa and ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu courted their arrest. Bajwa, Bittu along with several other leaders and hundreds of party activists were detained by the Chandigarh police, and were later released.
leaving Bajwa on his own fate, the party MlAs left for Vidhan Sabha to attend the ongoing Budget session. This is the first ever protest of such a large scale by the State Congress that was force stopped by the police. AICC general secretary and party affairs in-charge for Punjab Shakeel Ahmad, AICC secretary Harish Chaudhary, former Punjab Chief Minster Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader Sunil Jakhar, MlAs Preneet Kaur, lal Singh, Rana Gurjeet Singh and Rana Gurmeet Sodhi participated in the protest rally.
The party workers, led by Bajwa along with Indian Youth Congress Chief Raja Amarinder Singh Warring, started marching towards Punjab Assembly to gherao the House.
Police resorted to mild force initially to disperse the protesters but later used water canons to stop the workers to move any closer to the state Assembly, with barricades installed at places to halt their movements. Congress workers, who were shouting slogans against the BJP-led Government at the Centre and SAD-BJP led Punjab Government, were adamant to lay a siege of the State Assembly despite prohibitory orders, police said.
In the scuffle, Congress MlA Kuljeet Singh Nagra was injured while two police officials also received minor injuries because of stone pelted by Congress workers. Attacking the Modi led government at the Centre and SAD-BJP Government in the state, Bajwa said that the land Acquisition Bill was against the interest of farming community and the party would not allow the NDA Government to take any decision against the farmers’ interest. He said that the state unit would start a ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ against the “draconian law” in Punjab.
“We will soon take a decision to start Jail Bharo Andolan from Punjab against the land Acquisition Bill and our leaders will court arrest against this law,” said Bajwa adding that the campaign would continue until the land Acquisition Bill is rolled back by the Centre.
The State Congress chief further said that the party would also soon hold a protest outside Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's residence against the Bill while accusing the Badal-led Government of adopting "anti-farmers" stance by supporting the Bill. A multi-layer barricading was done by the Chandigarh police to stop protesters from proceeding towards the State Assembly, which is about seven km from Sector 25.