Farmers opposing a nuclear power plant to be set up by Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) detained a team of surveyors for several hours on Monday at Gorakhpur village, 360 km south of Chandigarh.
They were released after it transpired they worked for a private firm tasked with
surveying the project site.
A case is on at the Punjab and Haryana high court, where the farmers have submitted a petition against the plant.
The team comprising surveyor Sadanand and his two assistants arrived at the village in a jeep with their instruments on Monday morning. When some villagers learnt about it, they informed Kishan Sangharsh Samiti activists, who, led by their president Hans Raj Siwach, rounded up the three-member team, took away their instruments and drove them to a nearby hamlet. A group of 50 farmers stood guard. The police managed to pacify the farmers later and the officials were released.
Talking to HT on the phone from the hamlet, Sadanand said they had been mistaken for government employees.
"We are employees of DBM GEO Technical Private Ltd, which has been tasked with conducting a survey of the place, the canal nearby and the plants in the area. We have nothing to do with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd."
Siwach, however, said: "The corporation must not send such teams when the matter is in court."
Fatehabad deputy superintendent of police Shamsher Singh Dahiya said: “The matter was resolved amicably as Gorakhpur farmers had wrongly suspected that the team belonged to the government-owned NPC."