Other States - Rajasthan   

CPI(ML) workers injured in police lathi-charge

Special Correspondent

Many leaders taken into custody

JAIPUR: A few workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) were injured when the police resorted to a lathi-charge at Buhana town in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan on Thursday.

The CPI (ML) workers were forcing their way to the venue of a meeting in which Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria was to address after inaugurating the new police station building at Buhana.

Those who sustained injuries include Omprakash Jharoda, district president of the Rajasthan Kisan Sangathan, Dara Singh, RKS secretary, Buhana.

The CPI(ML) workers were proceeding towards the meeting with the objective of raising the issues like the recent hike in the power rates for farmers and the inadequacy of the drought relief work in the area in the presence of Mr.Kataria.

CPI(ML)State secretary Mahendra Choudhary said over 100 party workers, including Ramchandra Kulhari, general secretary of the Rajasthan Kisan Sangathan, Phool Chand Dewa, district secretary, CPI(ML) and Rattan Singh Arya, president, Gramin Mazdoor Sangathan were taken into custody by the police. Their whereabouts were not known till evening, he said.

The authorities in Jhunjhunu have denied any police lathi- charge on the activists but conceded that they used force to stop them from reaching the venue.

"We could not have allowed them to disrupt the meeting of the Home Minister,'' observed B.S.Dehta, Collector, Jhunjhunu, talking on telephone.

Mr.Dehta said the police had to take 50 persons into custody as the mob was indulging in stone pelting and creating a law and order situation prior to the arrival of Mr.Kataria.

"It was pre-meditated. Some people had given a call to stop the Home Minister from reaching the venue,'' he noted.

On the other hand CPI(ML) leader Srilatha Swaminathan said the police action on party workers was "unprovoked'' and part of a plan.

"It was a pre-meditated plan on the part of the authorities to provoke the farmers and get rid of them from the venue,'' she charged.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rajasthan facing power crisis
CPI(ML) workers injured in police lathi-charge
New oil find may be Jatropha plant
Excessive E. coli found in soft drinks

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu