Visually impaired hold protest in Shimla

Shimla, July 24

Hundreds of members of the Himachal Pradesh Blind Persons’ Association here today blocked the Chhota Shimla-Sanjauli road near the state Secretariat in protest against the non-fulfilment of their demand over backlog recruitment.

The protesters sat on the road and raised slogans against the state government. The protest disrupted traffic movement on the road for a few hours. The association members also scuffled with police personnel when the latter tried to remove them from the road.

Rakesh Thakur, a protester, said they had been sitting on a peaceful protest under a rain shelter at Kalibari for the past 274 days, but were still unheard.

“We have blocked this road on five occasions before today. Whenever we block the road, the government calls us for a meeting and promises to fulfil our demands within 15 days or a month,” he said.

He said they had blocked the road in June after which a meeting was held with Health Minister Dhani Ram Shandil. “The minister had assured to look into our demands, but nothing happened after that. Once again, we are back to blocking the road in support of our demands,” said Thakur.

The association asked the government to fulfil the demands by August 15, failing which it will call on members from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and stage a bigger protest. The protesters also threatened to start a continuous hunger strike from August 15 if their demands were not fulfilled.