Ready to sacrifice lives: Anganwari workers

Ravi Chandel

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 23

Members of the Anganwari Employees Union (CITU) continued their protest outside Finance Minister Manpreet Badal’s office here on the second day today. They also observed a hunger strike from 9 am to 5 pm.

The protesters raised the slogans against the state government and the minister for not fulfilling their demands.

Addressing the protesters, union leader Prakash Kaur said, “We are not afraid of sacrificing our lives to protect our rights. We will continue the protest and hunger strike till November 30. The state government will be responsible if any untoward incident takes place.”

The lax attitude of the government is evident from the fact that not even a single government official visited the site to listen to their grievances, she added.

She said the Congress had promised employment to a member of every household before the elections, but the government is doing the exactly opposite after coming to power.

“They are snatching the livelihood of those who had been serving the state for the past many years,” she added.

On the other hand, another union of the anganwari employees held a district-level meeting at Teachers’ Home here today.

The meeting was chaired by their state president Hargobind Kaur and district general secretary Gurmeet Kaur. Members of the union from the Malwa region participated in it.

Hargobind Kaur said, “We have decided to gherao the Vidhan Sabha on November 27 and protest against the state government for not fulfilling our demands.”

She condemned the statement of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in which he said they could not regularise the jobs of the anganwari workers.