Jobless linemen try to stop CM’s cavalcade in Lambi, 3 detained

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Roranwali (Lambi), May 3

Protesting unemployed linemen today tried to stop Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s cavalcade at Roranwali village in Lambi Assembly segment.

When the CM left the village after the Sangat Darshan in the village, a lineman came in front of a car moving ahead of the CM’s official vehicle.

Policemen deployed there took him away. Another protester then started raising anti-government slogans. He too was overpowered.

A total of three linemen were taken into preventive custody under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC. They were identified as Hitesh Kumar, who had last year tried to burn himself at SAD’s Maghi Mela conference in Muktsar, Jagdeep Singh and Jaswant Singh.

The unemployed linesmen have been disrupting the ruling SAD-BJP combine’s programmes for long.

Pirmal Singh, president, Unemployed Linemen Union, said: “The government had agreed to give jobs to 5,000 linemen in 2011. But it gave jobs to only 1,000 and the remaining 4,000 are still awaiting their job letters.”

He said: “We will now disrupt CM’s Sangat Darshan in Dirba Assembly constituency on May 12-13.”

Get ready for battle over SYL: Badal

Badal appealed to the public to be prepared to face a tough battle on the issue of the SYL canal. He said: “We will have to fight a long battle to protect our state’s riverwater as we are already facing a shortage of water.” Badal, however, feigned ignorance about the gangsters operating in the state and even accessing social media from inside the jails. He only said: “I will look into the matter.”