Summary:
Noida, Nov 25 (PTI) Over 50 villagers from Noida who wanted to hand over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi a memorandum of their demands were detained by police early on Thursday in a “preventive measure” for law and order situation, officials said.
There was also a brief commotion during Modi"s address at Jewar by a group in the gathering of thousands which was demanding that a bench of the Allahabad High Court be set up in western Uttar Pradesh.
The prime minister was at Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar district on Thursday to lay the foundation stone for the Noida International Airport, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in attendance at the event.
The villagers, who were detained and taken to the police lines of adjoining Ghaziabad district, have been protesting against the Noida Authority for months now, chiefly demanding increased compensation for their land, which was acquired by the state government in the past.
While police officials said they “could not immediately” confirm the number of people who had been detained, the protesters pegged the figure at 60, saying they were picked up from outside the Noida Authority"s office in the city before they could move to Jewar to hand over the memorandum to PM Modi.
“We were at the protest site near the authority"s office when police picked us up around 2.30 am.