70 detained near Manesar, planned to go to PM’s House

The Gurugram Police on Tuesday detained 70 farmers in Manesar and stopped a procession by 400 more who had decided to march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, police officers aware of the matter said.

Manesar assistant commissioner of police, Surender Singh, said the farmers who had gathered at the protest site did not heed orders to disperse following which the police acted. “Section 144 had already been imposed but they tried to march towards the highway so we detained them. No traffic congestion was reported since all the routes were manned and we did not allow parking on any main road,” Singh said.

The farmers had gathered at a place about 10km from the Kherki Daula toll plaza to support the demand for an ordinance on the minimum support price (MSP) for which Punjab-based farmers have been camping near the Haryana-Punjab border for a week.

The Manesar farmers were also protesting the “inadequate compensation” for nearly 1,800 acres of land they sold to the Haryana government. More than 500 police personnel had been deployed in Manesar to stop the march, police said.

ACP Singh said over 20 teams had been deployed on the highway between Bilaspur and Sirhail border to ensure protestors did not cross the border towards Delhi.

Police teams reached Manesar early on Tuesday morning and surrounded the farmers at about 1pm. Farmers from at least 30 villages of Rewari and Gurugram districts had gathered in the area. All 70 of the detained protesters were taken to different police stations in two buses from the area opposite Manesar tehsil, police added.

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Moti Lal, a farmer leader, said the farmers were unhappy with the compensation for about 1,800 acres of land in five villages falling under Manesar which had fetched inadequate compensation. “We were already planning a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Tuesday and we wanted to support our brothers who are protesting in Punjab and Haryana. Police tried to stop us and sent notices to many farmer leaders on Monday late evening but we gathered at the site around 10am under the banner of the Dakshin Haryana Kisan Khap Samiti,” he said.

The sarpanch of Kasan village in Manesar, Satdev Sharma, said they planned a silent march and assured the administration that they would only walk on both sides of the highway and not disturb the main carriageway were not allowed to do so. “Before we even started walking, police surrounded us and pushed many of us inside the bus,” he said.

Another protestor alleged that the government wanted to grab farmers’ land by buying it at throwaway prices. “We are only raising our voice for injustice meted out to us,” said Mahender Singh.