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Local police and administration brought to an end the ‘Chita Andolan’ (pyre protests) being held since July 3, 2026, by people affected by the Ken-Betwa Link and other projects near Kupi village in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
At 5 am on the morning of July 19, a large number of police and administrative officials arrived at the site and took away hundreds of people—including movement leader Amit Bhatnagar—in vehicles. July 19 marked the seventeenth day of the ‘Chita Andolan’ and the fourteenth day of Amit Bhatnagar’s hunger strike.
Divya Ahirwar, another leader of the movement, told Down To Earth (DTE) that early in the morning, a police force of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 personnel arrived in 150-200 vehicles and began removing people. A lathi (baton) charge was also carried out when people resisted.
She stated that the collector of Chhatarpur and the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Bijawar also arrived at the protest site. Ahirwar noted that there were 600-700 tribal villagers present at the protest venue. She alleged that police and administrative officials did not engage in any dialogue regarding the protesters’ demands; instead, they asked people to disperse and, upon their refusal, immediately began forcibly removing them.
Ahirwar claimed that Bhatnagar was set to expose the Rs 400 crore corruption in the Ken-Betwa Link Project to the media on July 19; however, the authorities arrested him and other protesters from the agitation site.
DTE called the SDM to seek the administration’s perspective on this matter but was unable to reach him.
