Bhagwant Mann
Massive protest outside Punjab CM's home over wages as Bhagwant Mann is visiting Gujarat for poll campaign
Chandigarh/IBNS: A massive protest is underway 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 are holding the protest. The police resorted to baton charging to bring the crowd under control.
Dramatic visuals from the site showed the protesters waving flags, and shouting slogans amid being beaten by the police.
The protesters are demanding that the state government hike their minimum daily wage to Rs. 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, an 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.
Punjab CM is peddling lies in Gujarat and his govt is raining lathis on any & every democratic protest in Punjab.
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) November 30, 2022
Mind showing this to the people of Gujarat too @bhagwantmann?
I condemn this action in the strongest terms. pic.twitter.com/ge30BnQylG
The protesters initially gathered at the Patiala Bypass, and then started marching towards the Chief Minister's house around 3 pm.
When they reached the residential society where the Chief Minister has 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.
Mann is in Gujarat campaigning for the assembly elections that begin on Dec 1.
His Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that the protests are being backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ruling party in Gujarat, AAP leaders said, is under pressure by the AAP campaign and therefore hitting back in this manner.
The Dalit backlash against AAP is apparently expected to gain brownie points for the BJP as the latter's vote base among the community as well as the tribal population is steadily shrinking.
The AAP government was criticised earlier for not implementing reservations for Dalits in government departments.
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