Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The protesting farmers announced an end to their agitation in Lakhimpur Kheri after a truce was struck between them and the police administration following the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight persons had lost their lives on Sunday.
As per the Additional Director General (law and order) Prashant Kumar, the state government will give Rs 45 lakh each to the families of four farmers killed in the violence. Moreover, the injured will be given Rs 10 lakh each and the dependants of those killed will be given government jobs.
The ADG also said that a probe into the violence would be carried out by a retired judge of the High Court and the state government has assured the farmers that the culprits would be arrested within the next eight days.
After the truce, the protesters agreed for a post-mortem examination of the four farmers who died in Sunday’s violence. The autopsy would be done by a panel of five doctors and the procedure would be videographed.
Earlier, politics intensified over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday with a number of political leaders, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, prevented from moving to the trouble torn district by the Yogi Aditynath government on Monday.
ALSO READ: Book those involved in death of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri for murder: Varun Gandhi to Yogi
Priyanka, who arrived in Lucknow at 8:30 pm on Sunday and tried to proceed to Lakhimpur along with Deependar Hooda in the wee hours on Monday, was detained at Sitapur. She has been taken to the APC guest house. Meanwhile, the state Congress leaders including UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and MLC Deepak Singh staged a protest at Sitapur demanding the release of the Congress general secretary.
Similarly, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was arrested while sitting on a dharna outside his residence in Lucknow when he was denied permission to proceed to Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday.
The Samajwadi Party alleged that Akhilesh Yadav was placed under house arrest late on Sunday. However, there was a huge security presence outside the residence of Yadav in Lucknow. Akhilesh was due to travel to Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday. However, after the SP workers agitated over the denial of permission to go to Lakhimpur and indulged in arson, setting a police vehicle on fire in Lucknow, the cops arrested Akhilesh Yadav along with his uncle and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav. Even Shivpal Yadav, chief of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party – Lohia was detained while travelling to Lakhimpur Kheri.
In the wake of the protests, the Lucknow administration clamped Section 144 CrPC on Monday. Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary, home, Awanish Awasthi wrote to Lucknow Airport authorities asking them not to allow Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder S Randhawa to land at the airport for their scheduled visit to Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday.
Awasthi informed the Lucknow Airport authorities that Section 144 had been imposed in Lakhimpur Kheri and “requested them not to allow the arrival of Baghel and Randhawa”.
Responding to the communication, Baghel tweeted whether civil rights had been suspended in Uttar Pradesh. Baghel asked, “The government of Uttar Pradesh is issuing a decree not to allow me to come to the state. Have civil rights been suspended in Uttar Pradesh? If Section 144 is in Lakhimpur, then why is the state government stopping you from landing in Lucknow?”
The Uttar Pradesh government has written to the Punjab chief secretary urging the state not to allow anyone to travel to Lakhimpur Kheri.
