Tension, chaos in village over removal of barricades

Our Correspondent

Hajipur (Hoshiarpur), October 14

There was tension in village Chakk Mirpur this afternoon as a large number of police personnel arrived and removed the barricades laid by the villagers to stop heavy vehicles from entering the village.

People were enraged over this sudden action of the police and after the security personnel left, they raised the barricades again, installing them on the road where they had first been placed.

Heavy police force had come along with a earth moving machine and with its help they removed the barricades without telling anybody what they were up to. Seeing the police removing the barricades, people of the village started gathering but the police left soon, after having removed the barricades.

Deepak Hajipur, spokesman of Khanan Roko, Zameen Bachao Sangharsh Committee, said, “Today, a police party accompanying the henchmen of the crusher owners involved in illegal mining in the border areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh reached the village this afternoon in three buses. A number of women police personnel were also there besides cops on motorcycles led by the SHO, Hajipur. Without asking for anything or without giving any information about the reason for their action, they removed the barricades installed on the village road with help of a JCB machine of the mining mafia.”

As the police left, the people raised the dismantled barricades and installed them again at places from where they had been removed. “We are determined that we won’t let the loaded trucks and tippers cross through the village as it disturbs the people. If the administration does it again to help the mafia, they would have to run their vehicles over our bodies,” said Deepak.