Villagers on Saturday tried again to stage chakka jam over the ration card verification issue, but the police chased them away by resorting to mild lathi-charge.
On Friday too, the villagers had staged chakka jam on the same issue and had taken many officers hostage for hours. On Saturday morning, people from many village panchayats had assembled before the Janpad Panchayat office and a chakka jam like situation was created on Raipur-Kolkata national highway.
Police personnel posted at Saraipali, said that the protesters had assembled to stage a chakkajam, but were chased away by using mild force. On Friday, infuriated over the cancellation of ration cards, thousands of villagers had staged chakkajam on the national highway for hours. They had made the officers, who reached there to pacify them, hostage for hours. The protesters had locked the Janpad Panchayat Basna CEO and the tehsildar inside the Janpad panchayat office.
Similarly, a chakkajam was staged in Bichhiya village also from Thursday. The protesters had burnt the effigies of the prime minister, the chief minister and the local MlA. People from village panchayat Damodarha, Banobhatta, Mundha, Girsa, Rimji and dozens of other villages were involved in the protest.
The protesters were demanding a written assurance of non-cancellation of ration cards. In the meantime, when tehsildar Thakur and Janpad CEO Maheshwari had tried to pacify the protesters, they were locked inside the Janpad office. Women were demanding written order from the collector. In the evening, additional superintendent of police Rajesh Kukreja, SDOP Bagbahra Soni, Pithoura police station in-charge Dwivedi, Basna police station in-charge Narsingh Ram reached the site with police force and got the Janpad CEO and tehsildar released.
On the instruction of the collector, tehsildar had given written assurance to the protesters. Villagers of Bichhiya and nearby areas, who were staging chakkajam, demanded to call the SDM. Police station in-charge Naag reached there and asked the villagers to remove the chakkajam. In between, a dispute was aroused over something and the police resorted to lathi-charge.
It was said that the police had fired in the air also, because of which the villagers had dispersed for some time, but thereafter they re-assembled and started pelting the vehicles and police with stones. Some police personnel suffered injuries in the incident. Additional superintendent of police Rajesh Kukreja said that 14 protesters were arrested and some more would be arrested.