Venting anger over their villages being brought under municipality from the revenue areas, several protesters from BJP, CPI-Ml and Kranti lok Sangathan pelted the fleet of the State Cabinet Minister Harish Chandra Durgapal with stones in Nainital on Wednesday when he had gone there to inaugurate the new municipality building at Bindukhatta. Things spiralling out of control, police used force to disperse the protesters. Around dozen policemen, including women constables and some locals were injured. Police arrested 18 protesters under Section 151 of IPC and took them to the police station at lalkuan. It is learnt that one sub-inspector Suman Pant had an arm injury.
The lalkuan police station officer Vipin Chandra Pant said that evidences are being collected through intelligence reports and other sources and FIR will be lodged against those who tried to disrupt peace.
Hundreds of CPl (Ml) and BJP activists assembled at Carroad, near Bindukhatta and raised slogans, demanding the decision to create a new municipality at Bindukhatta be withdrawn and reverting the area back to its former status of revenue area.
Police said the protesters had used the strategy of keeping elderly women in the forefront followed by the young women to stop the cops from swooping down on them. “One of the protesters standing behind pelted stones on police, triggering the chaos,” one of the cops present said.
City commissioner Haldwani Harveer Singh, SDM Pankaj Upadhyay, ASP Yaswant Singh along with other police officers rushed to the spot and tried to persuade the protesters to leave the place. However, the situation worsened as fresh people joining the stir swelled the number of the protesters.
Tension mounted further as the local Congress activists turned up and started sloganeering against the protesters. They said the protestors were trying to stonewall development being ushered in by the State government. They raised slogans in support of the minister too.
The minister’s fleet remained stuck in the melee with the police seen desperately trying to make space for his car to move on. Finally, the minister reached the programme venue albeit around two and half hour behind the schedule. The programme was scheduled to start at 11 am.