Congress workers cane charged in Lucknow

Congressmen from all over the state, protesting that the National Food Security Act was not implemented in Uttar Pradesh, were cane charged Thursday evening as they tried to lay seige to the state assembly building in the state capital.

The protest, announced in advance, saw a huge gathering of protestors at the Laxman Mela Park, from where they were led by party leaders to the Vidhan Sabha building.

The procession of protestors was being led by the Congress UP in-charge Madhusudan Mistry and Congress state president Nirmal Khatri. As it reached the state assembly building, a police posse tried to persuade the protestors to back off.

The protestors, however, insisted on marching on, and police resorted to a baton-charge in which several Congress workers were injured.

Police said Congress protestors were trying to scale the boundary walls of the state assembly building and pelting stones at policemen, leaving them with no option but to resort to the cane charge.

The party's media coordinator Siraj Mehndi, however, claimed that the cane charge was "unprovoked, uncalled for".

Congress leaders also called the behaviour of the Akhilesh Yadav government in the state "dictatorial" and "anti-people".

Chairman of the Scheduled Caste Commission and Congress MP P.L. Punia too slammed the cane charge on Congress workers and said that the protest was a peaceful one, demanding subsidised food for the people, under a scheme launched by the Congress-led UPA government, but not implemented by the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state.