 Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 22: On the 49th day of their protest, police resorted to lathicharge on the protesting Anganwari workers, when they blocked the road at Dogra chowk for over an hour.
A large number of Anganwadi workers on 49th of their protest had assembled at MA Stadium. In the shape of a rally, hundreds of protesting Anganwari workers came out of the stadium at afternoon and blocked the Bikram Chowk-Bus stand road outside Dogra Chowk. The police tried to persuade the protesters but after nearly half an hour, they agreed to lift the dharna. The protesters moved towards Press Club but when they reached Dogra Chowk area, they once again sat on dharna, amid raising slogans against the state government and in favour of their demands. Criticizing the apathetic attitude of state government, the protesting Anganwari workers said that for the last 49 days, they have been staging peaceful protest demonstration but government has refused to pay any heed towards our demands. At one hand the state government is contemplating to give amnesty to the militants and also huge money but it has no policy for the Anganwari workers, who have been working on meagre wages for the last many years.
The women police personnel present on the scene, tried to remove the protesters but latter refuse to relent. The police then started lathicharge on the protesters. In the lathicharge, some of the women sustained injuries and even some of the protesters were brutally dragged by the police, inviting sharp criticism of the protesters.
"If we will also throw stones on the police, then probably, some policy would have been formulated for us, but in our state, there seems no taker of peaceful protests", a protester said. After the lathicharge, the protesters lifted the blockade. |
