Pro-Hazare protesters picket Manmohan Singh's Chandigarh house

Pro-Anna Hazare agitators Tuesday held a protest outside the private residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the upscale Sector 11 here.

The protesters openly defied prohibitory orders enforced on Monday by the additional district magistrate outside the house.

Nearly 25-30 protesters, including women, carried the national flag and posters and banners and staged a sit-in outside the house.

Manmohan Singh used to reside on the Panjab University campus here in 1950s and 1960s where he was first a student and later a faculty member in the department of economics. He became professor in the department at the age of 32.

The authorities had on Monday prohibited the assembly of five or more people in an area of 200 metres from the house of the prime minister, three union ministers - Kapil Sibal, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ambika Soni - and Congress MP Manish Tewari.

All of them have their private residences in the city.

Another set of protesters on Tuesday laid siege of a road in Sector 28 near the residence of union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal, who is also the Chandigarh MP.