Uttaranchal Anganwadi Employees’ Union members boycotting work on Friday has affected the process of making voters’ cards in the State. The union members took out a rally to the Secretariat, demanding the State Government to address their demands, the most important of them being a hike in salary.
Disrupting the important work being stressed by the administration, a number of Angawadi workers, mostly from the hills, led by the general secretary of the agitating union Sushila Khatri, gathered at Parade Ground and tried to take the rally till the Secretariat while shouting slogans against the state government. Their demands include increase in their salary upto Rs 18, 000 and appointment of Anganwadi assistants as supervisors.
The protesters were stopped at the barricade erected near the police headquarters. Police stepped in as the agitators attempted to break the barricade. Notably, the administration had deployed additional forces in view of the rally. Stopped from marching to the Secretariat, the agitators sat near the barricade and continued with the stir.
Khatri said that they would not give in to pressure being put by the administration to make them fall in line. “Rather, we would intensify the stir if the administration refuses to address our demands. We are anguished over the administration’s continued indifference to our cause. We are being compelled to boycott works of making voters’ cards,” she said. She further said that the Anganwadi workers would not lift take home ration for the Anganwadi centres they are working in from the department concerned if their demands are not met soon.