Despite cover, Marathi family of Vijay Singh Suryavanshi to leave Haryana-Stays Back

CHANDIGARH: This is not the homecoming Vijay Singh Suryavanshi had dreamt of when he left Jalgaon in Maharashtra for Karnal, Haryana, 15 years

ago. "But when three armed men barged into our homes warning us to leave the state, we changed our minds. We'll try to leave Karnal in the next week as we have small kids and can't risk anything," said Suryavanshi on Saturday, a decision that is bound to impact nearly 15,000 families living in the state.

"If we go to Maharashtra we will, before everything else, hold a press conference in Mumbai
and tell how well we were treated in Haryana and how no Haryanvi either hurt us in any way or ignored us for being outsiders. We were never humiliated here," said the construction contractor.

An embarrassed Haryana government, reacting to the TOI report on the Maharashtrian couple's anxiety following lumpen element's threats, has now not only given them police protection in the form of a four-man team headed by an SHO, but asked them to stay back in Haryana. Moreover, it has given the Suryavanshis a choice of changing their residence to some other colony in Karnal. The state home department has, meanwhile, sought a report from the police on the issue.