A delegation of Malaria Protection Workers (MPW) Multipurpose Employees’ Union members met the Chief Minister’s officer on Special Duty (OSD) Anand Bahuguna on Thursday evening and put their demand. But the meeting ended inconclusive, said a union member Sudama Joshi. According to Joshi, Bahuguna asked them to call off their strike first to pave the way for the State Government to take initiatives on the matter. He said that their protest would continue till a solution to the logjam evolved.
Meanwhile, State BJP president Tirath Singh Rawat along with some party members reached the protest site on Thursday and threw their weight behind the demand the agitators have been staging stir for.
To keep pressure on the state government, four members of the union, who have been staging agitation from atop a water tank near Dehradun social welfare department office since late Monday night, demanding regularisation of jobs, continued with the stir from the same place on Thursday. The agitators would stay there until their demands are met, members of the association spearheading the agitation said.
By way of precaution, the police have spread out a net below the tank to ensure their safety in case anyone of them decides to leap from there in suicidal bid. Police forces have also been deputed near the tank to avoid untoward incident.
There was no change in the picture on Thursday with the four remaining a top the tank and other union members staging a sit-in on EC Road near the water tank in empathy with the common cause-regularisation of jobs.
The agitators who are protesting from atop the water tank are lalit, Devanand, Bhupendra and Banti. The condition of Devanand and lalit deteriorated on Thursday. However unfazed, they are continuing with their stir.
Rakesh Bisht, one of the association members, said, “We have no other option but to intensify the stir in the coming days, given our predicament. The State Government’s apathy over our plight has prodded us to opt for the agitation.”