Youth Cong workers protest land acquisition norms

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 30

More than 100 workers of the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) were rounded up on their way to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s official residence here today. Led by PYC president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, they had gathered at the Punjab Congress Bhawan.

They planned to hand over a memorandum to the Chief Minister against the “corporate houses-friendly” land acquisition norms. Chaudhary alleged that the norms had been framed only to help big corporate houses.

As soon as the PYC workers moved out of the Congress Bhawan, they were stopped at the barricades put up by the Chandigarh Police, barely 100 metres from the party office. They tried to breach the barricades, but were arrested, bundled into buses and taken away amid sloganeering.

They were taken to the Sector 39 police station and let off late in the evening after which they submitted a memorandum to the Governor.

The PYC chief was scheduled to arrive at the Congress Bhawan at 12.30 pm but reached there at 2 pm. The delay resulted in a lukewarm response with not many PYC workers turning up for the protest. PPCC chief Partap Bajwa, who was at the Congress Bhawan to pay homage to Mahatama Gandhi, did not participate in the protest.