Nagpur: Wednesday morning, another day of the Winter Session of the legislature in city, began with a lathi charge by police on 25,000 protesters of the Maharashtra State Sanganak Parichalak Sanghatan. They had been protesting since Tuesday morning to fulfil their demands. Since the government had rejected the demands, the protesters turned louder with their slogans this morning that forced the police to use the lathi to disperse them off Tekdi Road. It left 200 people, several of whom were women, injured. The lathi charge even led to stone pelting by the protesters on the police that injured more than 10 policemen. The scene was straight out of a movie where the protesters were made run helter-skelter by the charging cops. To protect the woman protesters who had come along with their kids, the male activists formed a chain by holding their hands. However, it’s alleged that the cops ran through them and started the beating the women. “Male cops were beating the women protesters. They did not even call the women cops to handle us. This is against the law and policemen should be punished for it,” claimed Siddheshwar Munde, state the president of Sanganak Parichalak Sanghatan. Munde informed that last year twice they were given written assurances that their demands will be fulfilled this year. “But rural development minister Pankaja Munde rejected the demands on Tuesday evening and thus we decided to stay firm and protest till our demands are fulfilled,” he said. Activists claimed that the policemen had surrounded them from all sides and they started using the lathis, it caused panic among them. In a bid to escape, people started running hither-thither and that led to a stampede. Some climbed the roofs and sheds of the nearby houses. Many fell and walked over each other. The injured told that the policemen chased them onto the roofs too. The situation was brought under control within 15 minutes when the senior officials including CP SP Yadav, Joint CP R Rajvardhan and other officials reached the spot and calmed the protesters down. Later, the organization leaders rushed the injured in their private vehicles to the Mayo hospital. Marchers claimed that the police did not even help the injured to take them to the hospital. 93 people who were injured were rushed to Mayo Hospital while others were taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). 18 people, including three women identified as Sheetal Pagar, Charu Patil and Sangeeta Eknath, are undergoing treatment at Mayo hospital while others have been discharged after the preliminary treatment. Police deployed at Mayo police booth informed that two people have suffered fractures while the women protesters are seriously injured. Physically disabled Pagar, who is in her 20s, told TOI that she fell in the crowd and was asking for help. “Yet, the policemen walked over me while beating other protesters. I somehow managed to rise but, again, the police continued hitting me till I collapsed,” she said. Prakash Bhimrao Raut, 30, who has suffered fracture on his left leg, claimed that the police did not give any intimation before resorting to lathicharge. “After spending the whole night in the chilling winter at Tekdi Road, we started with the slogans again in the morning. Our protesters were loud. A few policemen first asked the protesters to calm down and after a few minutes, they suddenly started hitting us with the lathis, causing panic among others protesters who then broke the barricades to escape and started stone pelting.” Legislative council leader of opposition Dhananjay Munde tabled an adjournment motion over the issue demanding suspension of cops involved in the incident but the chairman rejected it. However, he described the incident as a black spot on the winter session and directed the government to make a statement on the incident on Wednesday. The government failed to obey this directive. Munde said that on one hand the state government was increasing the use of computers and information technology (IT) and on the other it was not giving decent wages to those involved in implementing it. He justified the demand of the operators of a monthly salary of Rs15,000 claiming that they were getting less than domestic helps. There was so much commotion in the council on this issue that rural development minister Pankaja Munde too urged the home department to make a statement.

