Bhagwant Mann In Gujarat, Massive Protest Outside Punjab Home Over Wages

A massive protest in progress outside the Sangrur home of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who is on the campaign trail in Gujarat ahead of assembly elections in the western state.

The farm workers and trade unions holding the protest are engaged in clash with the police, who are using batons to bring the crowd under control. Dramatic visuals from the site showed the flag-waving, slogan-shouting protesters being beaten by the police.

The protesters are demanding that the state government hike their minimum daily wage to ₹ 700 under the MNREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and implement the 5 marla land scheme.

The protesters also want 33 per cent representation for Dalits in village cooperative societies, increase in recompense for land acquisition, relief for farmers suffering due to cattle deaths from lumpy skin disease and compensation for crop damage.

The protest, which was announced earlier, had started in the morning.

The protesters, who had gathered at the Patiala Bypass, had started marching towards the Chief Minister’s house around 3 pm. When they reached near the residential society where the Chief Minister has a rented accommodation, they were stopped by the police.

The farmers, who held a 19-day protest in October, agreed to call it off after the government accepted their demands in writing.

Mr Mann is in Gujarat, campaigning for the assembly elections that begin on December 1.

His Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that the protests are being backed by the BJP. The ruling party in Gujarat, AAP leaders said, is under pressure by the AAP campaign and this is their way of hitting back.

The Dalit backlash against AAP is apparently expected to gain points for the BJP, with the party’s vote base among the community as well as the tribal population, steadily shrinking.

The AAP government was criticised earlier for not implementing reservation for Dalits in government departments.