Chandigarh police use water cannons as AAP protestors try to 'gherao' BJP office over slow lifting of paddy in state

Chandigarh: Police here on Wednesday used water cannons on AAP's Punjab unit leaders and workers as they tried to march towards the state BJP office to "gherao" it in protest against the slow lifting of paddy in the state.

Several Punjab ministers, including Harjot Singh Bains, were part of the protest.

Police had set up barricades near the Punjab BJP office. As the AAP workers tried to jump over it and move towards the BJP office, police used water cannons to stop them.

Earlier on Tuesday, Punjab minister Aman Arora accused the BJP-led Centre of taking revenge on farmers for standing against the three now-repealed farm laws.

"They are deliberately slowing down the lifting process to create difficulties for farmers and commission agents," Arora alleged in a statement.

He also lashed out at the BJP-led Centre for not evacuating foodgrain stocks from Punjab, alleging the state has no space in the warehouses to store fresh crops.

A delegation of the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday met Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, seeking his intervention with the Centre for expediting the evacuation of rice stock from Punjab.

Paddy lifting from grain markets in Punjab was hit after the state rice millers refused to mill the paddy till their demands were met.

The rice millers have expressed concerns over the out-turn ratio (post-milling yield) of the PR-126 variety and other hybrid varieties, claiming that it will cause them huge losses.

They were also demanding the evacuation of wheat and rice stock from the state to create more space for storing the fresh crop.