The Times Of India, June 13 2017, Indore: A group of social activists led by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar were arrested on Sunday while they tried to enter Mandsaur district to meet kin of five people, who were killed in police firing on June 6.
Two dozen activists, including Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav, Swami Agnivesh and JNU students’ union president Mohit Kumar Pandey, were stopped by the police at Dhodar toll collection booth in Jaora of Ratlam district. Heavy police force and water cannons were deployed and barricades were placed, hours before the activists reached the Dhodar toll plaza. The activists staged a protest on the Mhow-Neemuch highway blocking traffic.
They said that no written order that prevented them from entering Mandsaur was shown by the administration. They shouted slogans against the government and in support of farmers for about an hour.
As the protest intensified, the leaders were arrested under CrPC Section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences), said official sources.
Questioning the move of police, Patkar told reporters, “I don’t understand how our visit to Mandsaur will spark violence. We only wanted to meet the families of the farmers, who were killed in police firing.”
Yadav said, the activists had brought along with them soil from different parts of the country and a letter signed by people of different states in support of the families of the slain farmers.
“We wanted to hand over the letter and soil to the kin of the deceased. But the administration did not allow us,” he said. He demanded a probe into the deaths of the farmers, besides immediate action from the state government in waiving farm loans.
Web: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/indore/medha-several-activists-arrested-outside-mandsaur/articleshow/59125310.cms
