No govt nod, farmers to protest outside Patiala

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 21

The district administration today denied permission to farmer unions to protest outside Chief Minister’s residence here. Instead, they have been told to protest at a grain market in Mehmadpur village — 5 km from here.

A day after the High Court ruled that an assembly in the absence of requisite permission would not fall within the domain of legality, the seven protesting farmer unions today applied for government’s nod.

Farmer leaders, who met DC Kumar Amit, suggested a few venues to the administration — Polo Ground, Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib, Patiala grain market or Mehmadpur village.

“The administration has allotted Mehmadpur village for protest as all other venues are in the city. Any protest in the city would have caused inconvenience to the public,” Amit told The Tribune.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 police personnel have been put on standby here to ensure there is no law and order problem during the six-day protest starting tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, the police top brass, including Patiala Zone IG AS Rai and SSP S Bhupathi, decided to seal all entry points to Patiala and allowed farmers to use the highway to reach the protest site.

The District Magistrate has already imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in the city, restricting the assembly of four or more people.

“We will leave for the Mehmadpur grain market from Longowal tomorrow morning,” BKU (Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said in Longowal.

Farmer leaders have been protesting in Longowal since Wednesday against the registration of a case against 40 farmers and women members of their families following a clash with the police on September 19.

Ugrahan said, “We agreed to the change of venue as we did not want to cause inconvenience to city residents. Our aim is to raise the voice of farmers.”