Cops prevent farmers from razing inoperative toll plaza

The Bathinda district authorities on Monday prevented activists of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) from demolishing the remaining parts of the inoperative toll plaza in the Maur subdivision. But no police action was initiated against the farmer union volunteers for damaging the building near Ghumman Kalan on Friday in violation of a stay order of the Punjab and Haryana high court against its demolition.

On August 2, scores of farmer union activists gathered at Ghumman Kalan with a JCB machine and other equipment to raze the structure. They targeted the building in the presence of the police.

It was the second non-functional toll booth on the Bhawanigarh-Kotshamir route which was demolished by farmer unions. Today again they gathered in large numbers and announced to demolish a few rooms and medians. The administration deployed police to prevent the BKU for again initiating any damage or removing the debris.

Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amneet Kondal, who joined the office a day after the demolition, today said law and order was maintained with the deployment of an SP and two deputy SPs. On non-registration of a case for unauthorised demolition by the farmer union, she said efforts are being made to defuse the tense situation.

A meeting was called by the district authorities at Maur on Monday which was convened by Rampura Phul’s sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Kanwarjeet Singh, who has the dual charge of Maur, in which senior officials of the police and the public works department (PWD) were also present to convince the farmer leaders to drop their demand of razing the structure. The SDM said the farmer unions were apprised that the state was contesting to vacate the stay order.

He added that the farmer leaders agreed to wait till the high court’s decision as the next date of hearing is scheduled for September 16. “Taking note of the concerns of safety expressed by the villagers, it has been decided to deploy traffic personnel and put night reflectors,” said the SDM.

BKU leader Resham Singh Yatri, who is leading the protest, said a massive demonstration will be organised on Thursday for toll plaza’s removal to make the road safer for commuters. About 16 years ago, the road was widened with the help of a loan from the World Bank.

To repay the loan, the previous Congress government allocated the work to collect toll to a firm but the work couldn’t start due to protests. The private firm later approached the court, demanding ₹13 crore as damages that it had invested in the toll plazas in 2018, but that was never operationalised due to protests by villagers.