Chandigarh, (Samajweekly) Punjab Police on Wednesday cane-charged protesting farmers and farm labourers outside Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s rented house in Sangrur town.
Mann is currently campaigning in Gujarat for the assembly polls.
Tens of thousands of farmers assembled there over their demand, including an increase of minimum daily wages to Rs 700 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA), implementing five-marla plot schemes for Dalits and allotment of the third part of common panchayat land on lease to the community.
They were protesting under the flag of Sanjha Mazdoor Morcha, a joint front of eight labour unions.
In the evening, as they marched towards the chief minister’s residence, the police resorted to the cane-charge to disperse them.
Expressing confidence of a landslide victory in the upcoming elections, Chief Minister Mann said 6.5 crore people of Gujarat are ready for a change and AAP will form a government with a huge majority after ousting oppression and tyrannical rule of 27 years in Gujarat.
The Chief Minister said that despite ruling the state for the past 27 years, Gujarat’s people are still deprived of basic facilities including good education and health facilities.
Youth are unemployed and inflation is incessantly rising in the state but the BJP did nothing to improve the situation and their leaders remained focused to fill their own coffers only, he said at a public meeting in Gujarat.
