Mansa thermal plant 350 farmers rounded up as admn takes control of land Chander Parkash Tribune News Service

Mansa, July 23
Over 350 farmers, including women, of four villages were rounded up forcibly by the police when they offered resistance to the officials of district administration today while they were taking possession of their respective landholdings for setting up a thermal plant.
Minor scuffles took place at a number of places between agitating farmers and policemen when the latter were taking them into their custody. However, the policemen did not resort to lathicharge to disperse the agitating farmers.
Though Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ravinder Singh and SSP Hardyal Singh Mann claimed that the possession of about 880 acres of land had already been taken and only work connected with the fencing of the same was started today, a large number of farmers, who were not willing to give their landholdings for the thermal power project, alleged that they were rounded up in the wee hours and subsequently their landholdings were taken into possession.
More than 2,000 policemen, who were called from various districts, were deployed late last night in villages namely Jalbehra, Sirsiwala, Gobindpura, Dyalpura, Kishan Garh, Bhadurpur, Kulrian and Chak Alisher and other areas of the district.
The police authorities claim they took a section of farmers, including Ram Singh Bahinibagha, president of BKU (Ugrahan), Mansa unit, into preventive custody while they were marching towards Gobindpura village to oppose possession of land of farmers forcible by the policemen.
After that, policemen rounded up hundreds of farmers while they were marching towards Gobindpura village from Cheema, Phaphre Bhaike, Bhikhi, Dhaipi, Dyalpura and Budhlada areas. The farmers were lodged in different police stations of Mansa district till the filing of this report.
The farmers alleged that the SAD-BJP government had been uprooting them by taking their landholdings, which was the only source of their livelihood, to facilitate a private company to set up a thermal power plant on the same. They declared that they would continue their protest and alleged that DC Ravinder Singh had assured them that their landholding would not be acquired without their consent.
Ravinder Singh, however, claimed that the land had been acquired with the farmers’ consent. He said today work connected with the erection of pillars and fencing of 880 acres of land, already taken into possession for thermal plant, was carried out.