Rishikesh forest land lease case: 6 held, 700 booked for creating ruckus during protest

Rishikesh/Dehradun, Dec 29 (PTI) Police in Rishikesh arrested six people and booked 700 others on Monday, a day after they allegedly created ruckus by blocking roads and railway lines and pelted stones at the police and administration during a protest against survey of forest land.

Rishikesh Police Station in-charge Kailash Chand Bhatt said that a case has been registered against 700 people, 44 of whom have been named, for disrupting law and order during the inquiry committee's proceedings on Saturday and Sunday.

He said that six of them have been arrested.

Following the order passed by the Supreme Court on December 22 in the case of the lease of reserved forest land, the Uttarakhand government had constituted an investigation committee which is surveying the forest land.

In protest against the committee's actions, local people pelted stones at police and forest department teams on Sunday and blocked roads and railway lines for hours.

Later, Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh reached the spot and persuaded the people to remove the blockade and restore traffic. The police also conducted a flag march in the area. Bhatt said that two police officers were injured in the stone-pelting incident, while miscreants allegedly committed serious offenses against a forest officer.

He said that video evidence of this has been submitted in the case.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal said his party would provide legal aid to the affected people in the matter.

After visiting Rishikesh to assess the situation, Godiyal said that the government should regularize the land on which people have built their houses.

"The government is trying to intimidate people under the pretext of the Supreme Court's order. We have told the people that the Congress will provide them with legal assistance," he said. PTI COR DPT NB NB NB