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Vasundhara to finally visit troubled town today

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, DEC. 20. Decks have been cleared for the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje's visit to Ghadsana town in Sriganganagar district on Tuesday with the Administration today issuing orders for release of all 11 persons who were jailed during the three-month-long farmers' agitation in the area. The Government gesture, well in time before the visit, has made farmers to call off a proposed protest on her arrival.

This will be Ms. Raje's first visit to the district witnessed lot of violence, including five deaths in police firing, in the wake of the farmers' agitation demanding supply of irrigation water in the Phase I of the Indira Gandhi Canal Project. The Chief Minister had drawn flak for not visiting the area during the crisis period. Ever since a truce had been reached between the agitating farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Vyapari Sangarsh Samiti and the State Government on December 11 in Ajmer jail it was expected that the Chief Minister would be visiting the affected area soon. However, what had come as a last minute hiccup was the continuing incarceration of 11 persons, even after the release of others including the three arrested under the National Security Act.

The farmers had threatened a black flag demonstration on the arrival of Ms.Raje to the area if those in jail were not released by then. "I am standing outside the jail in Raisinghnagar. Eight of our colleagues have already been released and orders have been issued for the release of remaining three. They will be free by tomorrow morning,'' Hetram Beniwal, Sriganganagar district president of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) and farmers leader, said when contacted in the evening. "Since the demands have been met--we have the water, the cases have been withdrawn, all those arrested are freed--we are not going to protest. This does not mean that we are going to welcome her either. We will be mere spectators though the Bharatiya Janata Party is on an attempt to collect crowds for her programme,'' Mr.Beniwal said. "They are not going to get locals to attend the programme in big numbers. They may bring people from neighbouring areas,'' he noted. "Apart from what she has already agreed, let us see what else Ms.Raje has to offer to the people of the area,'' Mr.Beniwal said when asked about the possibilities of a package from the Chief Minister on her visit. As a political party, the BJP was in a pretty predicament in the area during the past three months as its local workers had mostly sided with the farmers' leaders throughout the agitation. According to information available here, Ms.Raje is scheduled to visit Ghadsana around 1 PM tomorrow and remain in the area for the next two hours.

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Vasundhara to finally visit troubled town today

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