Chandigarh: Sector 27 locked down for Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, locals fume

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, August 30

Almost all roads leading to Sector 27 were blocked today as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar arrived at the Press Club for a conference.

The fortification of the sector, from 8 am to 2.45 pm, had been done “in view of a threat from farm protesters”. On the holy day of Janmashtami, residents of Sector 27 were locked down in their homes for over six hours. The Chief Minister, however, was at the conference for three hours, from 11.30 am to 2.30 pm.

The roads separating Sector 20 and 19 and Sector 27-D and 19-C were also barricaded by the police. The traffic was allowed inside the sector only from two points — the roads separating Sector 27-C and 27-D and Sector 27-A and Sector 27-B. However, on the latter stretch, the traffic was being diverted to the residential area of Sector 27-A so it could reach the Sector 27-D market.

In the market, a harrowed Sector 8 resident, Kamlesh, who had to walk all the way to a temple, said, “I had to go to a temple here, but the road was blocked. So, the auto dropped us on the light point here at the market. I have a knee problem, but I’ll walk, what else can one do?”

Even though the markets in the area remained open, the business was slow. A shopkeeper in Sector 27-D said: “We had no prior intimation about the area being cordoned off. Since it’s a holiday, I was expecting more footfall, but now, the business is slow.”

Ramji Das, chairman of the Market Welfare Association, Sector 27-D, said: “Shop owners didn’t get many visitors most of the day, but who will listen to them?”

Farm activists protest at least a km away

In front of the market facing the T-point leading to the Khattar’s conference venue, two women waived pro-farmer flags. “One of them was rounded up by the UT police. A baptised Sikh woman, Surjit Kaur Khalsa, was detained for about half an hour,” said Satnam Singh Tanda of the Kisan Ekta, Chandigarh.

SP (City) Ketan Bansal denied having detained anyone. He said: “We didn’t detain or round up anyone.”

“We gathered at a masjid of Sector 20 and wanted to go to the venue from inner roads of Sector 19. In front of the Sector 19 police station, the police stopped us, even used mild force and made a human chain. We turned back and went to the main road. Then, we reached the road separating Sectors 19 and 20. There too, there was some argument with the police. They didn’t want us to even go to Sector 27, leave alone the venue where Khattar was present. So, we decided to protest on the Sector 19 side of the dividing road,” said Tanda.