Soon, protesters will pay for damage: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said his government is planning to bring a law under which protesters will have to pay for the damage to public properties during any protest.

Khattar made the statement on the sidelines of his meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah. “We talked about party matters. We also talked about the farmers’ protest and I gave the Home Minister all the information that I had about dharnas and Kisan mahapanchayats in the state,” he said.

Asked about his government’s proposed law against protestors, Haryana CM said, “No, we have not talked about the laws. We have been planning to bring this law even before the farmers’ movement started. Once Supreme Court in its decision had said that nobody had the right to vandalise public property, and we are bringing a law under which people have to pay for damage to public property.”

The statement comes amid farmers’ protests across Delhi borders for nearly 3 months over the three new laws, which they say favour big corporations. The Centre has refuted the concerns, and offered to put the laws on hold for 18 months, but talks are currently locked in a stalemate.

Reiterating the Centre’s stand, Khattar said the three laws are for the benefit of farmers and will give a boost to the agricultural sector. Some people are protesting just for the “sake of protest” and it shows their “vested political intent”, the CM said according to the statement.

Farmers would have died even at home: Minister

Haryana agriculture minister JP Dalal on Saturday said farmers would have died even if they had stayed back home. Responding to a query over the “death of 200 farmers” in the ongoing protests, Dalal said: “Had they been at their homes, they would have died there also.” “Listen to me, out of one to two lakh, do 200 people not die in six months?” he asked in response.