Will gherao Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s Karnal house on March 11 if talks fail: Sarpanch body

CHANDIGARH: Minutes after he was released from Panchkula police lines on Saturday, Ranbir Singh Samain, president of the Haryana Sarpanches Association, announced to go ahead with the group’s plan of gheraoing the state CM’s residence on March 11.
Speaking to TOI over the phone, Samain said there would be a “massive” agitation and gherao of Haryana chief minister’s residence in Karnal on March 11 in case talks between the delegates of the association and CM Manohar Lal Khattar didn’t work out.
“It was out of respect for the law and high court that we did not resist. Officers had come to us around 6.30pm. Even a DIG-level officer, who acted as a negotiator, visited us. Meanwhile, they called the force and took us in buses,” said Samain. “Had we resisted, it would have been said that we showed disrespect to HC, which we did not want,” he said.
Samain also blamed the RSS for action against protesting sarpanches. “It is an RSS-sponsored conspiracy, hatched by the government, to suppress the agitation,” he said.
He minced no words in blaming the RSS for the court order and subsequent police action against the sarpanches. “The entire episode was an outcome of a conspiracy by the government through the people who have roots in RSS. Just see who filed the petition and who pleaded the petition, all this is self-explanatory,” he said.
While the detained sarpanches were taken to the Panchkula police lines, the police personnel from Panchkula and Chandigarh started removing the three-layer barricading and the anti-riots gear placed on both the sides.
Mattresses and tents used by agitators were taken into custody and the articles of community kitchen set up by the protesters too were confiscated by the police. By the filing of this report, the police were looking for the details of those who had provided material support to the agitators.Sumer Pratap Singh, DCP, Panchkula, who spearheaded the operations, said their focus was to get the city roads cleared. “We had approached them with the directions of the court…buses were called and they were led to the buses after they demanded court arrest,” said the DCP. He, however, ruled out that detentions were linked to the case registered against the agitators on March 1. “That is totally a separate issue,” said the DCP.
Notably, following a with the police personnel that resulted in injuries to 22 policemen and 13 agitators, the agitating sarpanches had blocked the Panchkula-Chandigarh road. The agitation had got support from the leaders of the opposition parties like the Congress, INLD and the AAP and khap panchayats.