E-Paper
Farmer killed, 4 injured as protest turns violent at Hisar power plant
The protest took a violent turn when farmers tried to take over the railway track and started a march towards the power plant i Hisar; 4, including 3 cops, were injured in the violence.
A 56-year-old farmer was killed and four others, including three policemen, sustained injuries when a tractor driver tried to ram the vehicle into a barricade but it ran over them during a protest by farmers outside a thermal power plant in Hisar on Friday, forcing the police to use water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.
The deceased farmer has been identified as Dharmpal of Khedar village. The injured cops are Sandeep, Maneet, both constables and Suresh Kumar, ESI. The injured farmer’s identity is yet to be ascertained.
Since April 18, the farmers of Khedar and other adjoining villages in Hisar have been sitting on dharna outside the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant (RGTPP) at Khedar against the new guidelines issued by the ministry of power to stop giving free ash to farmers, which they have been getting for the last many years.
As per the new guidelines, the ash being generated at power plants should be sold through a tender process. After this, the plant started e-auction of the ash and stopped giving it free to the locals.
The protest took a violent turn when farmers tried to take over the railway track and started a march towards the power plant. The police had to use water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters, who had broken the barricades put outside the power plant.
Hisar superintendent of police Lokender Singh said, “the protesters had assured us that they would go back home after giving a memorandum to the deputy commissioner.”
Singh said that suddenly, the protesters hit the barricade. “A farmer died and four others, including three policemen, were injured when one of the protesters tried to hit the barricade with his tractor and it ran over the farmer,” he said.
“The injured have been undergoing treatment at the civil hospital. The condition of two cops is said to be critical. When the situation goes out of control, we use water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters,” the SP added.
Farmers announce boycott of two ministers, local MLA
Earlier in the day, the farmers had announced a social boycott of power minister Ranjit Chautala, state minister Anoop Dhanak and Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag, accusing them of not resolving the issue.
The farmers had announced to occupy the railway track being used to bring coal to the plant. On June 30, the farmers had given an ultimatum to block the track at Khedar village on July 8 if the issue was not resolved.
Each thermal power plant generates lakhs of metric tonnes of ash. Out of this, 80% of the ash is dry and the same is being sold by power plants for many years.
But during the cooling of the kiln, the ash falling down gets deposited at the pond’s bottom, which was being provided to adjoining village residents free of cost. The same ash was sold by locals to cement factories and road construction contractors.
