Over 1,000 anganwadi workers from Punjab staged a protest last month against the Punjab government in Sector 34 in Chandigarh and then marched toward the Aroma Hotel traffic lights in Sector 22 where they staged a sit-in, severely disrupting traffic for over two hours. The women workers were demanding promotion for anganwadi workers at the supervisor level. They also demanded that they be given pension, gratuity, ex-gratia and provident fund scheme.
The Chandigarh Police, which had no prior information of the protest, was seen struggling to control the demonstrators, with only a few women cops on duty. It all began around noon when members of the Punjab Anganwadi Mulazim Union gathered outside the office of the Punjab Social Welfare Secretary in Sector 34 and staged a protest. The police reached the spot after an hour, along with a quick-reaction team. Sector 34 police station SHO inspector Uday Pal Singh then tried in vain to persuade the workers not to proceeding further as they were already in an area where protests were prohibited.
The workers refused to change the form of their protest and began their march at 1.30 pm from Sector 34, sending the cops into a tizzy as there were only five women cops positioned to control the agitating mass of women. While an additional force of over 60 male policemen was deployed when the protest began, women cops were nowhere to be seen for the first two hours. The policemen put up a barricade opposite the passport office and stopped the workers from proceeding further and waited for half-an-hour before additional policewomen were pressed into service. Thereafter, the protesters resumed their march.
Soon enough, traffic along the Sector 34, 35, 21 and 22 intersections on the busy Dakshin Marg leading to the Aroma traffic lights point was severely affected. Once again, the police erected barricades following which the women workers sat on the road and blocked the traffic.
Interestingly, all 11 SHOs of police stations of the city along with two DSPs reached the spot and took stock of the situation and after the intervention of a representative of the department, the protesters were dispersed at 3.30 pm. While no arrests were made, the police have registered a case under Section 283 of the IPC (obstructing public way) against the agitating anganwadi workers at the Sector 17 police station.
Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/
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