Ujjain : Police lathi charged on several slum dwellers as they protested the road widening work by pelting stones on the Ujjain Municipal Corporation (UMC) staff and declined to shift to other locality on Monday.
The UMC had launched the road widening work in the Hariphatak area under the preparations of Simhastha Fair-2016. On Monday, the anti-encroachment squad reached in the area under the supervision of assistant commissioner Subodh Jain. They tried to raze about 14 shanties in view of the widening of road ranging from beneath the Hariphatak Over-bridge and Yantra Mahal.
As soon as the UMC squad started removing the house-hold materials from the shanties and pressed a JCB machine into service, dozens of the slum dweller assembled there and started shouting slogans in protest against the move. They were advised to carry away their house-hold materials to Hamukhedi, but they declined to oblige the staff.
In the meantime, the protesters started pelting stones on the staff and tried to target the UMC vehicles. Led by CSP Vijay Davar, the Neelganga police tried to control the protesters, but they did not respond which forced the police to open lathi charge. Even, Police chased the protesters to some distance to teach them lesson as a policemen got injury during stone pelting.
Later, a case under Section 353, 336, 332, 294, 506 and 34 of the IPC was registered against the slum dwellers Gulab and Chandu by the squad in-charge Taufiq Khan. The ruckus continued for about 90 minutes. Finally, the squad vacated the shanties and then razed them, though the residents were not agreed to shift to Hamukhedi.
