Protesting anganwari workers ready for long haul in Karnal

Karnal, February 14

Hundreds of anganwari workers and helpers on Monday organised a state-level protest rally in Karnal and announced to stay put in the city till the fulfilment of their demands, including increase in wages and others.

They staged a dharna at the Committee Chowk, leading to traffic chaos in the city. The police had to make extra efforts to regulate the traffic. The police and district administration tried to pacify them, but till the filing of the report they were on dharna. Apart from staging dharna at the Committee Chowk, they put up tents in Sector 12 for a long haul in the city.

Earlier in the morning, they assembled in the Sector 12 fountain park and raised slogans against the government for not fulfilling the promises made in 2018.

The protesting workers and helpers blamed the government for not listening to their issues even after 70 days of the protest. Around 52,000 workers and helpers have been staging dharna across the state for the past 70 days to press their demands for the implementation of the promises made on September 10, 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of increasing the wages of workers and helpers by Rs 1,500 and Rs 750, respectively.

Similarly, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also promised in March 2018 to fix their wages as per skilled and semi-skilled workers, but all in vain, said Usha Rani, national president of the Anganwari Fedration. She said the government had also accepted the demand of Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia, but still it was not implemented. AAP leader Naveen Jaihind also extended support to the protesting workers. He said the anganwari workers and helpers would uproot the government.