Linesmen stage protest outside minister's office

Mohali, August 7

Members of the Powercom Transco Contract Workers’ Union today staged a protest outside the office of Cabinet Minister Anmol Gagan Maan in Mundi Kharar, to push for some of their long-pending demands, namely compensation for the kin of linesmen who have died, among others.

A heavy police force was deployed at the spot. As the protesters resorted to sloganeering, the cops detained around 50–60 of them, forced them into buses and ferried them away. Some of the agitators, including women and children, blocked the Kharar-Morinda road near the toll plaza and raised slogans against the government, upon being removed from the protest site.

Commuters were a harried lot as the protest led to traffic snarls in Kharar.