Villagers assault SDO, block highway in Charkhi Dadri

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, April 24

Residents of Charkhi village in Charkhi Dadri district today blocked the Bhiwani-Dadri road in protest against power crisis in the area and allegedly manhandled an official of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).

A police team led by a DSP later reached the spot and persuaded the protesters to lift the blockade.

Village sarpanch Gulzari Lal said that they had been facing power crisis for the past several days. “We have been urging the power officials to increase the power supply as we have been getting hardly 5-6 hours of supply. Long power cuts have also resulted in water crisis,” he said and added that the water and power crisis led to heavy resentment among the villagers who gathered on the highway and blocked it.

Atul Ranga, SDO, DHBVN, said that he was beaten up by villagers when he went to the village to listen to their grievances. “Around 250 persons blocked the road when I went to the village to assure them that their problem will be resolved, but some of the villagers assaulted me,” he said.

However, the sarpanch refuted the claim and said that the SDO was accompanying the police and no violence took place in the village. After some hours when the blockade was lifted, an Executive Engineer of the DHBVN informed him over phone that they had lodged a police complaint against the villagers for assaulting the SDO, he said. The power official also refused to increase the power supply to the village, he said.

Charkhi Dadri DSP Suresh Kumar said that the police had registered a case against several villagers who allegedly assaulted the SDO and blocked the road.