Day after being 'ignored', Beet residents protest

Garhshankar, January 19

Residents of the Beet area, under the banner of the Beet Bhalai Committee, organised a protest march and burnt an effigy of Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Rouri at Adda Jhungiyan.

Protesters accused the Garhshankar MLA and Deputy Speaker of misbehaving with the office-bearers of the Beet Bhalai Committee and other persons, who were protesting in Garhshankar yesterday. While burning the effigy, the traffic was blocked for some time and slogans were raised against the Deputy Speaker. A large number of women also participated in the protest march.

Addressing the protesters, various speakers said the Punjab Government and the MLA of the area, who’s also the Deputy Speaker, had adopted an indifferent attitude towards the demands and problems of the area. They alleged that the office-bearers and other persons of the Beet Bhalai Committee, who had gone to give a memorandum to the Deputy Speaker in Garhshankar yesterday regarding their demands and problems were humiliated.

Accusing Rouri of misbehaving with them, they said the people of the area would not tolerate such a behaviour under any circumstances. Along with raising the main issues of road, hospital, power supply, water industrial pollution and destruction of crops by wild animals among others, they demanded from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to withdraw the post of Deputy Speaker from MLA Rouri.

In the protest march, Sarpanch Ramesh Lal Kisana, Beet Bhalai Committee president Balveer Singh Bains, former sarpanches Kulbhushan Kumar and Davinder Singh, Jagdev Singh Mansowal, Mahindra Singh Nambardar, Garib Das and others were present.