Harda jal satyagraha: Cops pull out protesters from water
Updated: September 12, 2012 10:07 IST
In an early morning crackdown, police evicted the protesters who have been sitting in neck-deep water to demand that the water level in the Indira Sagar dam be lowered from 262 to 260 metres.
Sharp at 5.30 am, ambulances drove up and the police had made an announcement asking the protesters to come out of the water citing health concerns. By 6.15 am they had brought down a tent pitched on the bank of the Narmada; about 200 protesters in the tents were loaded into the waiting ambulances.
When those in the water refused to come out, many cops in orange life-jackets entered the water to begin the eviction. At about 7 am the policemen cut the cable on the NDTV OB van to discourage media coverage of the eviction. By 9.15, all the protesters had been brought out of water, Harda Collector Sudam Khade announced.
An activist Chitrupa Palit said the agitation would continue; they accuse the government of adopting "double standards."
For the last 15 days, the protesters had been sitting in neck-deep water to demand that the water level in the Indira Sagar dam be lowered from 262 to 260 metres.
