Tensions erupted in Barnala city on Wednesday after the district administration, with police assistance, launched a garbage collection drive amid an ongoing strike by sanitation workers.

Protesters opposed the drive, prompting the police to lathi-charge in an attempt to disperse them from the Handiaya Bazaar in the city.

Some of the protesters, including women, were injured during the action.

Additional police personnel were also deployed to maintain law and order.

Sanitation workers raised slogans against the administration and condemned the police action.

Earlier in the day, the police and protesting sanitation workers had also come face to face.

Leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Congress and farmer organisations have condemned the lathi-charge on protesting sanitation workers in Barnala.

Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said, “The brutal use of force against sanitation workers, especially women, in Barnala is absolutely condemnable. It was an unprovoked assault on poor people, and it is totally unacceptable. We demand immediate medical assistance for the injured, urgent talks with the sanitation workers, and the acceptance of their long-pending legitimate demands without any further delay.”

Former cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia also criticised the incident, saying, “The people who kept the city clean were brutally beaten and left bleeding by Bhagwant Mann.”

Congress MLA from Barnala Kuldeep Singh Dhillon said, “Demanding one’s rightful dues is not a crime, but it seems that under the AAP government, the answer to every question is simply a lathi-charge.”

Meanwhile, Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) Barnala district president Chamkaur Singh and general secretary Jarnail Singh also condemned the police action.

The sanitation workers warned that the AAP would have to face the consequences in the 2027 Assembly elections.