Farm protesters in Jhajjar on Sunday; uprooted bricks at a site where Haryana BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar laid the foundation stone for a party office earlier in the day. Manoj Dhaka FARM PROTESTERS on Sunday ripped out bricks laid for construction of a BJP office in Jhajjar soon after Haryana party president Om Prakash Dhankar laid the foundation stone there. They also placed a black flag at the spot, calling it a ‘farmers’ dharna sathal’.
The protesters alleged that BJP leaders reached the venue at 6 am instead of 10 am to avoid a confrontation. However, Jhajjar district BJP president Vikram Kadian denied the same. “We completed everything by 10 am as per our plans,” he said. Asked about the removal of bricks from the site, he added, “I am not aware of it. However, there were a few anti-social elements there.”
Farmer leader Vikal Pachar said, “This will be a new spot for farmers’ protest in Jhajjar. The farmers panchayats and other protests will be held here in the future.” “The BJP state president reached there at 7 am and left the venue by 7.45 am. The farmers, including women, had started reaching there by 9.30 am and protested there for nearly one hour. More farmers were moving to the spot but we requested them to stop as BJP leaders had already left the venue,” he added.
Black flags in hand, the protesters reached the spot in tractor-trolleys. In purported videos of the protest, they were seen smashing bricks from the office site. They also allegedly said in the clip that they felt “cheated” by the way the BJP leaders preponed their schedule.
A former state agriculture and farmers welfare minister, Dhankar belongs to Dhakla village of Jhajjar district.
Meanwhile, in Panipat district, farmers staged a protest against an under-construction silo of a corporate house.
The farmers demanded that construction be stopped immediately, said sources, adding that police also reached the spot.
On Sunday, cavalcades of farmers’ vehicles moved to Tikri border of Delhi from Sirsa and Jind. In the recent past, several big convoys of farmers have moved to Delhi borders from Haryana and Punjab in an attempt to further intensify their agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws.
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