Punjab: Protest against bio-CNG plant: Cong’s Adampur MLA, several others booked for Apr 23 highway blockade
Congress MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli was among 22 booked by name by the Bhogpur police station in the FIR that mentioned involvement of 100-150 unidentified persons
A Congress MLA from Adampur, Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, has been booked for “blocking the Jalandhar-Pathankot national highway” in Bhogpur during a protest against a bio-CNG plant at the local cooperative sugar mill on April 23.
Kotli was among 22 booked by name by the Bhogpur police station in the FIR that mentioned involvement of 100-150 unidentified persons. On April 23, the protesters led by MLA Kotli had blocked the national highway for three hours, causing inconvenience to the commuters as the whole traffic movement was diverted through alternate routes.
The FIR stated that the Congress legislator along with the locals created nuisance by blocking both sides of the roads and refused to lift the protest despite repeated appeals from the civil and the police administration.
Meanwhile, Kotli said prior information to the police and civil administration authorities had been given before the protest. He added that the authorities should have tried to pacify the protesters, who went to meet the official concerned two days before the protest. “I will move court as the FIR has been registered out of vendetta by the local police on the directions of their political and administrative bosses,” Kotli said.
Sections 285 (obstruction of public way), 126 (wrongful restraint), 326 (b) (mischief) 353 (public mischief by circulating false information), 190 (unlawful assembly) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nayaya Sanhita and other sections of the National Highway Act and the Noise Pollution (regulation & control) Rules have been slapped in the FIR.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring termed it vendetta. “If the Aam Aadmi Party thinks that it can intimidate the Congressmen, it is mistaken,” he said. He warned officials to stop acting as “AAP collaborators”.
According to reports, the authorities had earlier planned that once the bio-CNG plant at the sugar mill is made operational, the waste from Jalandhar and nearby areas would be brought here for bio management. Residents feared that it would turn the whole area into a garbage dump. Later, the district administration and the mill authorities refuted the claims regarding processing of municipal waste here. As per the authorities, only pressmud, which is generated during cane crushing, will be used as fuel to operate the plant.
Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) will hear on Wednesday an ongoing public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bhogpur residents against the bio-CNG plant.