Amethi tense following protests over poor power supply
Uttar Pradesh's Amethi town, the parliamentary constituency of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, remained tense on Tuesday following violent protests by people against erratic power supply, officials said.
Protests against poor power supply turned violent Monday night, when a group of angry residents threw stones at the police, injuring 10 policemen. They also barged inside the Kotwali police station and tried to set it on fire. Following pitched battles with the police, the security personnel responded with tear gas and batons to disperse the mob.
"We have registered a case against 30 people for resorting to violence during the protests that continued till late night," Superintendent of Police R.K. Chaturvedi told reporters Tuesday.
Amethi is part of Sultanpur district, about 150 km from state capital Lucknow.
"At present, we have managed to arrest only seven-eight people. Raids are being carried out in parts of Sultanpur to arrest others who had resorted to vandalism and violence," he added.
Residents, meanwhile, alleged that on the pretext of carrying out searches, police ill-treated women and misbehaved with them. But the district police chief refuted the charges.
"It's totally baseless. Those women who indulged in violence must be levelling such charges against our officials," said Chaturvedi.
Additional security personnel have been deployed in Amethi and its surrounding areas in the wake of the protests. Police said the situation was still tense, but under control.
According to residents, Amethi gets just about 10 hours of power supply every day.
