City police on Thursday resorted to lathi-charge on protesters who blocked Bharat Mata Chowk on Harmu Road for over two hours against the district administration evicting illegal occupants of several houses of Yamuna Nagar following Schedule Area Regulatory (SAR) Court’s order.
Possession of at least six such houses of Yamuna Nagar so far have been handed over to the tribal owners after the encroachers were evicted on Wednesday.
“Mild force was used after we failed to negotiate with the protesters who had blocked Harmu Road for several hours and finally resorted to stone pelting on the police against the court’s order,” said SP (City) Kishore Kaushal. One media person was also injured and his camera was broken after a stone fell right on his head, he added.
“FIR will be lodged in the case after identifying those who are found responsible for the same,” said the SP.
Sensing the situation, most of the shops were closed putting the traffic at a standstill. The administration also deployed a large number of forces to avoid any untoward situation.
Protesters, around 500 in number, first assembled at Harmu Maidaan and marched towards Shahjanand Chowk. After remaining there for over an hour, they blocked Bharat Mata Chowk near Mukti Dham shouting anti-government slogans and pelting stones on the police.
‘First, the SDM (law and Order) asked the crowd to recede and tried to negotiate with them, saying that the administration will review the notices served to them, still they did not turn back and finally, police had to apply lathi charge on the crowd to control the situation at 11 am,” said another official of the district administration requesting anonymity.
At least 25-30 households have been served notices to vacate their houses by the district administration.
Affected people claimed that despite paying compensation for the land long back in the SAR Court through drafts in the year 1990, the district administration issued notices. They claimed that the district administration had been doing this only to get media attention.
“The administration, in connivance with the local leaders, has been doing this just to get publicity in the newspapers as even tribal land owners do not want to get these lands back who have already been paid for the same. Since tribals did not want to get into any controversy, they immediately return the keys back to the house owners,” said a resident Dinesh of Yamuna Nagar. “After having lived here for over 25 years, where they expect us to go,” he asked.