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Hundreds of farmers beaten
mercilessly in Chandigarh
Most of
the farmers were Sikhs & were protesting against poor handling of
power sector
WSN Bureau
 CHANDIGARH:
Scenes of police mercilessly beating hundreds of farmers, most of
them Sikhs, and their turbans coming off, cops dragging them by
their hair, water canons targetting men above 70 years of age who
could not even run to get out of their range, a handicapped man
pointing to his emputated limb to seek mercy from a burly cop. Heart
rending scenes like these were played out in full public display and
on prime time national television in India when thousands of farmers
from Punjab gathered at Chandigarh to protest the way the state;s
power sector was being administered.
One farmer
trying to escape the police lathi charge by climbing on to a
vehicle's roof fell down and succumbed to injuries right at the
spot. Nearkly a 100 farmers, many of them above 70 years of age,
were badly injured.
Farmers are the
prime victims of the poor management of the power availability and
the near idotic ways in which the Punjab State Electricity Board is
being run, and will be facing a double whammy as the Akali Dal-BJP
government is favouring a corporate interpretation of the Central
Electricity Act 2003 and is arguing that unbundling of the PSEB is
mandatory when the best legal brains as well as top appellate
authorities have decided that that is not the case.
But what
happened on Tuesday in Chandigarh, barely a few hundred yards away
from the seat of the Punjab Government's power and the residences of
Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and his Akali Dal president son
Sukhbir Singh Badal was a saga with shame written all over it.
Adding salt to
injury were the statements of the senior police officers who said
they were proud of their constables and officers who handled the
situation in such a way, and vowed to repeat it any day.
Farmer's
protests coincided with protests by employee union activists against
the unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board here. Bharti
Kisan Union (EktaUgrahan) members -fearing an end to free power
facility post unbundling - confronted the police when prevented from
crossing barricades in their march towards Sector 17 after the
conclusion of a peaceful rally in front of the Sector 16 Cricket
Stadium.
Defying teargas
shells and lathicharge, the protesters burnt down four police
vehicles and a few two-wheelers parked in the area. As a large group
suddenly came down the road pelting stones, cops were chased away
right up to their riot-control vehicles. later, in a clearly
vengeful action, policemen in large numbers swooped down on farmers
much after the rally had ended and groups were on their way home.
They laid their hands on isolated little grouops and beat hem up
mercilessly.
The man who died
in the melee was identified as 35-year-old Jagjit Singh of
Chanarthal Khana village in Bathinda district. While the police
claimed that Jagjit fell from a bus and was crushed by another bus
following it, his associates alleged he was hit by cops while
climbing the bus.
The UT police
arrested 40 persons and registered four cases under Sections 146,
147, 148, 149, 307, 353, and 332 of the IPC.
At the rally
earlier, BKU leaders had warned the state government against any
move to unbundle or "corporatise" the PSEB, saying it would be
suicidal for the ruling alliance. They said the state authorities
would have to step over bodies of farmers to unbundle the PSEB. "The
PSEB is a public sector undertaking and a precious asset of the
people of the state, and nobody can snatch it from us," said BKU
(Ekta-Ugrahan) leader Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, while announcing a
"rail roko" and "chakka jam" across the state on September 16.
Farm leaders
also cited a Chhattisgarh High Court observation that unbundling
state electricity boards was not mandatory under Section 131 of the
Central Electricity Act, as reforms could be introduced within the
ambit of the power board itself.
Lacchhman Singh
Sewewala of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union said the government would
have to face the consequences of the day's action, as the unions
would decide the future course of action after the cremation of
Jagjit Singh on Wednesday.
The Punjab
Employees Federation and other trade unions condemned the police
action as "state repression".
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Punjab's response: Power to
cost much more
CHANDIGARH:
Just when large number of protesting Sikh farmerswere being
beaten in Chandigarh, a few hundred yards away came another
farmaan: The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission
hiked the power tariff for all categories by an average of 12.45
per cent, that too with retrospective effect from April this
year.
The
recommendation -which the government is constitutionally bound
to implement -- will directly affect domestic and industrial
consumers in a state reeling under power cuts. The increase for
the farm sector -- which gets free power -- will add to the
subsidy bill of the state government.
Domestic
consumers were the hardest hit with a 17.5 per cent increase for
the first 100 units of power consumed. From the current Rs 2.40
per unit, the new rate will be higher by 42 paise at Rs 2.82 per
unit for the first 100 units. For the next 200 units, the hike
is from Rs 3.91 per unit to Rs 4.28 per unit and for consumption
above 300 units the charge has gone up from Rs 4.13 per unit to
Rs 4.52.
Commercial
consumers -including shops, hotels, schools and marriage palaces
-- will now pay Rs 4.91 per unit, instead of Rs 4.49 per unit,
while the increase for public lighting is from Rs 4.40 per unit
to Rs 4.82. The hike will affect 66 lakh consumers in the state,
of which 46 lakh are in the domestic sector and 1.12 lakh
industrial.
The PSERC has
also proposed a hike of 45 paise per unit for the agricultural
sector. As the government is paying the PSEB for the free power
supplied to the farmers, the burden of increase will be on the
government.
The tariff for
temporary supply for domestic consumers, NRS, industrial, wheat
threshers, fairs and exhibitions has also been increased. Free
power to Harmandar Sahib and Durgiana Mandir for the first 2,000
units will continue, but for supply thereafter the cost has been
increased from Rs 3.19 per unit to Rs 3.49.
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9
September 2009
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