Farmers protest at the Ghazipur border. Manas Ranjan Bhui

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14

The BJP-JJP government in Haryana will on Monday introduce a Bill, which will make protesters pay for the damage caused to public property.

The Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property during Disturbance of Public Order Bill, 2021, is in line with a Supreme Court judgment on a similar matter.

No link with farm stir

The law has been in pipeline for quite some time. It has nothing to do with the farm agitation.—Anil Vij, Haryana Home Minister

Sources said the Bill was being brought in view of the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws at Singhu and Tikri, state Home Minister Anil Vij claimed otherwise. He said the law had been in the pipeline for quite some time and it had nothing to do with the farmers’ stir.

A recent report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated of 14,876 pending cases of damage to public property, nearly 6,300 pertained to Haryana, UP and Tamil Nadu. Except Haryana, the two other states already have such Acts.

Haryana has, in the recent past, witnessed violent protests, resulting in extensive damage to public property. During the 2016 Jat quota agitation, the loss was pegged at Rs 34,000 crore. Similar was the case during a protest by Dera Sachha Sauda followers in 2017.