Punjab: Congress workers bid to 'gherao' CM Parkash Singh Badal foiled

Phagwara, Jun 14: Scores of Congress workers were today detained when they tried to gherao Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Phagwara-Nakodar road here, police said.

PPCC General Secretary and former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann along with 60-70 Congress workers gathered at Hadiabad sub-town crossing on Phagwara-Nakodar road.

They staged dharna against Badal who was scheduled to pass from that side while on his way to nearby Narangshahpur

to inaugurate a 24x7 power supply grid for rural areas.

However, heavy police force, led by Phagwara SP Ashwani Kumar, foiled their bid to 'ghearo' CM and detained them, police said.

The detainees were taken to Chaheru police post, 8 kms away from the site, and kept there for about two hours under and later released after the CM attended two functions -- in Narangshahpur village and Manak village, for second round of 'Sangat Darshan' for distributing development grants to 40 villages.

Besides Mann, state party Secretary Jagjit Singh Bittu, party's Phagwara Block (urban) President Daljit Raju Darvesh Pind were among those who courted arrest today.

Today's protest because "Badal government had failed on all fronts. It was anti-people,anti-dalits and anti-farmers government", Mann told reporters.

He further alleged that "Badal's so-called 'Sangat Darshan' programmes were stunts as they were meant only to benefit the ruling alliance supporters/panchayats."

"Opposition panchayats are not given a single penny of development grant in these programmes", he said.

PTI