| Font Size |
Of these hoardings, some were about the coming Ravidass Parkash Utsav, and activists of the community and other Dalits, as a protest, blocked the highway from 9.15 am to 1:30 pm. The protesters, who were armed with bats, lathis and sharp-edged weapons, said their religious sentiments were hurt by the NHAI men and this was done deliberately.
The NHAI officials tried to bring home the point that they had removed all hoardings, irrespective of the messages they displayed.
A case was registered against the NHAI men for hurting religious sentiments and a mob was also booked for damaging three buses near Chehru bridge. Traffic between Jalandhar-Ludhiana and Chandigarh-Hoshiarpur route was badly affected. The entire city was closed till late afternoon.
Besides damaging a few vehicles, protesters also manhandled an old man on bicycle. Later, SDM Amarjit Paul, DSP HPS Khakh negotiated with an 11-member committee of the protesters. After the dialogue, the NHAI men were booked, but the demonstrators demanded that the booked be brought to the site of dharna.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|