Balmikis to resort to rail roko

PATIALA, May 7: Balmikis, all over the country would resort to a rail roko agitation on May 13 if their demand for discontinuing Jai Hanuman...

PATIALA, May 7: Balmikis, all over the country would resort to a rail roko agitation on May 13 if their demand for discontinuing Jai Hanuman, a teleserial being aired on DD-I was not accepted by then.

Announcing this at Nabha, about 25 km from here today, Prem Chand Gaggar, senior vice-president of the Punjab State Balmiki Sabha and a former municipal councillor, said that in the May 5 episode of Jai Hanuman shown on Doordarshan, Maharishi Balmiki was portrayed in the role of a dacoit. This, he said, had hurt the sentiments of about ten crore Balmikis all over the country.

An angry group of Balmikis took out a protest march shouting slogans against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj. They demanded that the producer of the serial, Sanjay Khan, tender an apology for hurting the sentiments of the Balmikis and the serial be taken off air.

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Later, they submitted a memorandum to the sub-divisional magistrate listing their demands.

JALANDHAR: Several shops were damaged in the main city centre here today by a mob of Dalits who were agitated over the alleged objectionable comments about Maharishi Balmiki in Jai Hanuman, police sources said. They were demanding a ban on the serial.

Similar protests were also held in the nearby Kartarpur town that led to the closure of shops. Traffic on the national highway, passing through Kartarpur, was held up yesterday by the agitators on the same issue.

Trouble started here this afternoon when about 50 agitators from the local localities went on a destructive spree on the old Grand Trunk Road, smashing wind screens and window panes of several cars and shops respectively. Since no immediate police assistance was available, shopkeepers in the area downed the shutters.

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The police, who arrived at the site soon thereafter, however, exercised utmost restraint and persuaded the agitators to disperse without causing further damage. An officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police was manhandled by the agitators, eye-witnesses said.

Later, the affected shopkeepers resorted to a demonstration and road blockade against the violence which was defused on the intervention of SSP Hardeep Singh Dhillon, who called a joint meeting of the Dalit leaders and the agitated shopkeepers.

Both the parties later took out a joint peace march, leading to normalcy in the area.