Protesters stopped by police outside Sumitra Mahajan's house

A group of protesters clashed with police outside the house of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan here Wednesday as they sought to present a memorandum against recent amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Mahajan, who represents Indore in the Lok Sabha, was not in town when the incident took place outside her house in Manishpuri area here, a police official said.

Vikas Awasthi, chief of a local organisation named Sawarna Sena, an upper caste outfit, led the protesters.

He said they only wanted to meet the Speaker to submit a memorandum.

"But police tried to stop us by putting up barricades on the road," he alleged.

Eyewitnesses said there were scuffles between police and the protesters.

Indore Municipal Corporation Chairman Ajay Singh Naruka then reached the spot, pacified the protesters and received the memorandum.

The memorandum demanded removal of 'discrepancies' in the reservation system, and scrapping of the recent amendment to the SC/ST Act which restored provisions regarding immediate arrest after the Supreme Court had inserted certain safeguards.