147 days of Zira dharna: Minister Dhaliwal meets protesters, fails to break deadlock; police lodge FIR

On Friday evening, a 21-member delegation of the morcha met Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. On Saturday, Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal met protesters in a bid to pacify them.

Roman Brar, convener of Sanjha Morcha Zira, said, “First the chief minister and then the agriculture minister proposed that a committee will be formed to verify all facts related to the pollution being caused by this factory and that it will submit a report within a month. If the owner is found guilty, the unit will be closed. They asked us to halt the dharna for now and let the committee do its work. However, we have decided to continue with the dharna till the the committee conducts its investigations. We have a feeling that this is just a ploy by the government to end our protest and later they will delay their reports. They did so in the case of Bargari sacrilege case as well.”

Addressing the protesters on Saturday, Dhaliwal said, “We are thankful that you chose a common man as your CM. Bhagwant Mann has seven acres of land under his name. I am the owner of four acres. We are both small farmers like you, and hence you should believe us. We appreciate your concern about the need for a safe environment for which you have been staging a dharna for the past many days. Let the committee conduct its probe in a month’s time.”

“Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann is the only CM who has met all 52 farmer unions and has held meetings with them multiple times. We are keen to redress your issues,” he added. Dhaliwal said the government will form several committees — Vidhan Sabha committee, soil health committee, agriculture committee and veterinary committee — to check the effect of pollution in the area.

The protesters, however, termed the minister’s promises a gimmick to get them to halt the dharna. Convener Brar said, “We are firm in our resolve not to end the protest till this unit is closed permanently.”

Brar stated, “The government must investigate how permission was granted to this liquor factory to operate if it has so many anomalies. They should check if the unit took took consent from all 25 surrounding villages before commencing operations here.”

A few protesters also told Dhaliwal that Bhagwant Mann had referred to a woman protester as his sister when she climbed on a water tank to demand a permanent job as a teacher. The same person, after assuming the post of Punjab’s chief minister, has been callous towards woman protesters who are part of the ongoing dharna. “We have lost trust in our governments. Our protest will continue,” said Brar.

Staged since July 24 this year, the dharna has already caught the attention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which ordered in September that the protesters must be shifted 300 metres from the present spot to prevent inconvenience to the employees of the factory.

On November 29, the high court fined the Punjab government Rs 15 crore for failing to get the dharna shifted from the gate of the factory. The case will be heard again on December 20.

Minister leaves, FIR lodged
Hours after Dhaliwal left the dharna site, Ferozepur police lodged an FIR against 14 protesters by name and 100-125 unidentified persons for allegedly obstructing the police from performing their duty. The FIR was lodged at around 6 pm. ASI Kulwant Singh, in his complaint, mentioned that while his team was on their way to Mansurwal village to get the dharna outside the liquor unit shifted 300 metres away from the present site. “We were, however, stopped near Rataul Rohi village by a bunch of protesters who were wielding swords, rods, sticks. They came on tractor trolleys and sat on NH-54 adjoining the village and obstructed the police from going towards Mansurwal,” he said in the FIR. No one has been arrested yet.