Labour unrest in Bikaner plant, 20 held

BIKANER: More than a dozen people including the deputy superintendent of police were injured when labour agitation turned violent in Guda power plant in village Guda of Kolayat tehsil. Police have arrested 20 persons and seized one jeep and eight motorcycles.
According to police, workers of Guda power plant are agitation from April 11 onwards, protesting removal of 20 labourers from service by the management.They were staging dharna with hunger strike in front of the plant. Thursday morning, Shankar Lal Bhat, former sarpanch of Guda, joined the agitation. With his support, the agitators forcefully took possession of the entry gates of the plant and started creating obstacles. Security personnel, deployed at plant, tried to remove the agitators, but they started pelting stones and as a retaliatory act security personnel also resorted to stone pelting. The plant management informed the police about the incident.
Receiving information CO (Kolayat), Ramavtar Soni and SHO Kolayat Bahadur Singh rushed to the spot and tried to persuade the agitators. But looking into the police intervention, agitators became more aggressive and pelted stones on the police team. Police too resorted to lathicharge. In the ensuing clash, the CO along with a dozen agitators also were injured. Higher police officers, SP Santosh C Chalke, ASP Devendra Vishnoi and ASP (rural) Satnam Singh too rushed to the village and managed to control the situation.
Santosh C Chalke said that police have registered case under section 151 and another case has been registered on the complaint of security personnel of the power plant for further investigation.