SAD protest leads to traffic disruption in Ludhiana

Residents had to face a difficult time for almost three hours due to the protest organised by the SAD leadership against the government’s land pooling policy. The protest, held today outside the Mini-Secretariat, saw a mammoth presence of supporters, who had come from several districts to take part in the agitation. Despite heavy rains, that started at 6.30 am and continued till 10.30 am, the protestors gathered on the Ferozpur Road in numbers.

For nearly three hours, traffic snarls were witnessed on both sides of Ferozpur Road. All the connecting roads—near Mall Road, the road going towards Ghumar Mandi, National Road, Bhai Bala Chowk, the overbridge coming down towards the Mini-Secretarit, Feroz Gandhi Market etc—were flooded with vehicles. At Bhai Bala Chowk, the traffic went haywire for over an hour around 2 pm when the protest ended.

Karnail Singh, a farmers from Garh Shankar, said he, along with a few villagers had come to attend the protest. “Although I am not very abreast of the issue, since it affects the farming community we decided to support the cause. I got a call from one of my acquaintances from Ayali Khurd, so I came today even though it was raining heavily,” added Singh.

Since it rained for four-five hours in the morning and by the time the protest ended it was time to pick students up after school, total chaos reigned on Ferozpur Road.

Meanwhile, about 2,000 persons had gathered outside the Mini-Secretariat to be a part of the protest. The dharna was mainly addressed by SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Amidst enthusiastic slogans of “Sukhbir teri soch te pehra deyange thok ke”, senior leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had tried to justify the policy recently. He said if the policy had been made keeping in mind the welfare of farmers then the CM should explain why he had refused to sign it and forced the AAP Delhi dispensation to replace him as chairman of the development authorities.

Senior leaders present at the dharna, included Hira Singh Gabria, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, NK Sharma, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, Bhupinder Singh Bhinda, SR Kler, Paramjit Singh Dhillon, Gurcharan Singh Grewal, Tirath Singh Mahla, Sunny Gill, Chand Singh Dalla, Sarabjit Singh Jhinjar, Kamal Chaitley, RD Sharma, Jaspal Singh Giaspura, Manjit Singh Madnipur, Balwinder Singh Sidhu, Parupkar Singh Ghumman, Bobby Garcha, Hitesh Grewal and Jaskaran Deol.