Despite the notice issued by Dehradun City Magistrate Anuradha Pal to vacate the protest site near Parade Ground, the protesters did not leave the site claiming it to be the State Government’s plan to suppress the voice of protesters. On the other hand Pal stated that conducting protest in the old protest site would be illegal from Thursday as the approval to protest in the old protest site is revoked.
Recently, the protesters at the protest site near Parade Ground were issued notice to shift their respective protests in the new protest site at Adhoiwala after Holi. However, no protest has been shifted to the new protest site by protestors so far. While talking to The Pioneer, Pal said that the notice was served to the protesting groups in the old protest site to shift their protest in the new site by March 11.
The permission to protest at the old protest site has been revoked and if the protest is not shifted then necessary steps will be taken against the protestors. “For now, we are just appealing the protestors to evict the site on their own. The approval granted for protests at the old site has already been revoked and if anybody is found to conduct any kind of protest at the old site, it will be against the law,” said Pal.
However, the protesters are not ready to vacate the old protest site as they consider it the government’s plot to smother their ongoing protests. “Government is sending us to a location where no one can see or hear people like us who are protesting against their oppression.
We will not budge from this place until the government annul the forest guard recruitment exam,” said one of the protesting members of Uttarakhand Unemployed Organisation (UUO) Suryakant Arya. According to one of the protesting members of Gairsain Rajdhani Nirman Abhiyan (GRNA) Manoj Dhyani, the administration has not made any arrangements in the new protest site like sanitation facilities, electricity or drinking water. Several diseases are spreading these days like Coronavirus and the administration is sending protestors to the location where hygienic conditions are quite poor, said Dhyani.
However, Pal said that the arrangement to provide all the basic facilities have been made in the new protest site near Adhoiwala.
The basic facilities that include mobile toilets, electricity, and drinking water are made available for the protestors said Pal. Pal also stated that it is important to shift the protest site to the new location because the construction under the Smart City Project will begin there soon.
In the meantime, delegations of an organisational and public group met the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat regarding the shifting of the protesting site to Adhoiwala stating this move to be against the system of democracy.