Need volunteers to guard 129 statues of Ambedkar: Garhi

Chairman of the Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes Jasvir Garhi on Tuesday said there was need to rope in village-level volunteers to guard 129 statues of Dr BR Ambedkar in the area of Jalandhar Range police.

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Visiting Nangal village of Phillaur where the statue of Dr Ambedkar was vandalised on June 2, Garhi said, "There are 29 statues of Dr Ambedkar in Phillaur alone. There are 61 statues in the area under the Jalandhar Rural Police, 51 statues in Hoshiarpur and 17 in Kapurthala. So the police cannot take care of all these statues. We need volunteers from areas who can stand guard."

Garhi, who was the Punjab president of the Bahujan Samaj Party before switching over to AAP and being appointed as Chairperson of the SC panel, seemed to be absolving the state government of the issue. He chose to pass on the responsibility directly upon village heads and youths from these villages.

Jalandhar DIG Naveen Singla too maintained that theekri pehra system used by villagers could be helpful. "We have been asking our teams to do patrolling around the area. But a night vigil by the locals on a rotation basis can be a big help. CCTVs too have been installed but we cannot ensure a fool-proof security under their coverage", he said.

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BOX: Police inching close to arrest of accused

The police following the case of vandalism of statue of Dr Ambedkar at Nangal village are learnt to have inched close to the arrest of the accused. The accused is learnt to have travelled 100 km on an old bike (not bearing any registration number) through the night with his face masked and head covered with a cap to deface the statue with a black paint spray.