Commuters bear the brunt as anganwadi workers block traffic

Hundreds of members of the Anganwadi Mulazim Workers Union on Monday held a statewide protest outside the BJP office in Dugri here. The workers raised slogans against the Central Government for not meeting their long-pending demands.

Later, the protesters decided to march towards Arora Palace. At the traffic light point, they squatted on road, blocking the traffic around noon on Arora Palace Road. The protest caused inconvenience to the public and commuters.

As the blockade was unscheduled, commuters did not get any chance to take some other route to reach their destinations. Several vehicles were stranded as the protesters blocked the traffic for around one hour.

The commuters pleaded to the workers to clear the road but they were not allowed to move. Instead, the latter started raising slogans.

Serpentine queues were witnessed all over.

Sarbarinder Singh, a commuter, said he had to reach a hospital to meet his ailing relative but he was stuck on the road for about an hour.

“It is criminal negligence. If protesters feel that their demands are not being met, they start such pressure tactics, without bothering that such acts hits the common man hard, who had nothing to do with the agitation,” he said.

Subhash Rani, the state president of the union, said the government did not bother if it was a simple protest.

“When the authorities saw that traffic was blocked, they sent officials who made us talk to Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu over phone. On his assurance, we decided to call off the protest. They could have done this before,” she said.

The workers submitted a memorandum to Ravneet Singh Bittu, Minister of State, Railways and Food Processing Industries, through the local authorities, requesting him to raise demands of increased allocation for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in the annual Budget 2026-27 for institutionalisation of the ICDS and regularisation and gratuity to the anganwari workers/helpers with the Finance Minister.