Villager killed, 3 cops injured during protest demonstration in Haryana's Hisar

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 8

A villager was killed and some other persons, including three policemen, suffered injuries as a protest demonstration turned violent in Khedar village of the district today evening.

SP Lokender Singh said a tractor tried to speed away and hit four persons at the protest site. As a result, farmer Dharampal, 56, reportedly suffered head injuries and later died. The SP informed that protesters had assured the police that they will leave the site after handing over the memorandum of their demands to the deputy commissioner but a tractor driver by protesters proceeded towards the barricade without any provocation. It breached the barricade and hit four persons causing serious injuries.

The injured cops have been identified as Sub Inspector Suresh Kumar and two constables Maneet and Sandeep and were admitted in Hisar hospital. A video clip of the protest site circulated by the district administration indicated that a tractor running amok hit some people as it reached near a police bus.

Meanwhile, farmer leader Suresh Koth alleged that the police used brutal force by unleashing lathi charge and using teargas shells in which about 10 persons were injured. He denied that the tractor had hit the villager while stating that the police lathicharge had resulted in death of Dharampal and another protester was in serious condition.

Later, DC Priyanka Soni and SP reached the spot and the situation was brought under control.

SP Lokender Singh clarified that police used water cannon and lobbed teargas shells to disperse the protesters. He said the police have started further action and are in the process of registering a case.

Earlier in the day, residents of Khedar village, who were supported by the farmers’ organizations, had given the call to block the railway track to the power plant. Led by BKU leaders Gurnam Singh Charuni and Suresh Koth, the farmers announced to boycott Haryana ministers Ranjit Singh and Anoop Dhanak and Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag.

Farmers have been staging dharna near the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant (RGTPP) for the last three months in support of their demand to provide fly ash from the thermal power plant to a gaushala in the village. The farmers said that over the past few years, the gaushala had been getting the fly ash from the power plant free of cost and then used to earn money by selling the fly ash to the cement industry and to contractors constructing highways and roads.

However, according to a recent order by the state government, the thermal plant was directed to dispose of the fly ash by way of e-auction. The Khedar power plant has a stock of 40 metric tons of fly ash and it is likely to earn revenue of about Rs 65 crore in e-auction.

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