Chandigarh (TIP): Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Friday, August 20, informed the state assembly that during the ongoing agitation against agriculture laws, two farmers had been booked for sedition, while 136 other protesting farmers have been booked under different sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

This information was given by  Vij in a written reply during the first day monsoon session of the state assembly.

According to the minister, two FIRs were registered under Section 124-A (sedition). One case was registered on July 11, 2021 in Sirsa, and according to the complaint recorded by the duty magistrate, the agitating farmers attacked the convoy of Deputy Speaker of Haryana Vidhan Sabha. The second case, registered on January 15, 2021 in Bahadurgarh of Jhajjar, was based on a video uploaded on social media by the accused who is seen saying that if the government did not pay heed to the protesting farmers, he would attack the government with a cannon.

Earlier in the day, Congress MLAs marched to the assembly, led by former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the issues of paper leak scam, atrocities on farmers, rising unemployment, inflation and rising crime graph in the State.

The party MLAs raised slogans against the BJP-JJP government and displayed placards.

Hooda said the government was trying to suppress all the scams including liquor, registry, mining, electricity meters and paddy purchase. “The government also wants to cover up the recruitment paper leak scam, but the Congress demands that there should be a CBI inquiry into the matter under the supervision of the sitting judge of the High Court,” he said.

“Ii is the responsibility of the Opposition to raise the voice of the public from the street to the House on issues of public interest. The government does not want the Opposition to raise public issues in the House and hence today an attempt was made to stop the Congress MLAs by putting up barricades far away from the Assembly,” he alleged.

On the first day of the session six Bills were tabled in the House, including the Haryana Management of Civic Amenities and Infrastructure Deficient Municipal Areas (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill, 2021, Maharishi Balmiki Sanskrit University, Kaithal (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the Haryana Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill 2021, the Haryana Enterprises Promotion (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021, Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts, Rohtak (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Haryana Amendment) Bill 2021.