Chief Minister Harish Rawat had to make a back door exit with assistance from his security guards from the State Congress headquarters, known as Rajiv Bhawan, on Saturday afternoon as scores of UPNl employees, on the agitation path for some time, stormed into the Bhawan and demanded a meeting with the CM regarding their long-pending demands.
Earlier, CM had arrived at Rajiv Bhawan as instructed by the State Uttarkhand Congress in-charge Ambika Soni to reply to the party about the charge that the State party chief Kishore Upadhyay made regarding CM’s non-response to thousands of letters sent to him on behalf of the party organisation.
Seeing that the UPNl employees were hell-bent on doing something desperate, those in charge of the CM’s security whisked him away through the emergency gate of Congress Bhawan. Things happened when a meeting by city Congress was going on with Kishore Upadhyay in the chair. CM Rawat appeared at the meeting. Although both Rawat and Upadhyay said the CM had taken the decision to turn up at the meeting on an impulse the party insiders said that his arrival was awaited. Seeing the CM coming, the Congress activists present raised slogans in his favour.
Upadhyay was grappling at the time with the discontent set deep in the Scheduled Caste wing. He asked them to refrain from venting frustration in the public. It was at the time the CM said that the charge brought by the PCC chief about thousands of letters sent to CMO remaining unattended to was serious.
He assured that he had started taking actions on the points raised in the letters. The CM looked a bit downcast with the issue of the party organization being given short shrift by the State Government having turned into a matter of hot debate both among the party as well the Opposition leaders.
CM claimed that the grievances raised in around 70 percent of the letters have been addressed to. He said, he would embark on public interaction programme soon to ensure that the people are posted with the latest status.
As the CM was engrossed in discussion with the State party chief the UPNl employee, who have been sitting on agitation since July 1, stormed into the venue. They demanded they be given an audience with the CM. They shouted in unison that their demand must be addressed to promptly.
CM tried to mollify them but he did not succeed. Showing their anger, they tore down the Government order which was issued for UPNl employees. Seeing that things could have spiraled out of control, police was mulling lathi charge. But the CM chose to leave the place instead to stop things from taking more unpleasant form. He left through the back gate of Rajiv Bhawan. He got in a Congress leader’s vehicle as the agitators stopped the CM’s convoy on Rajpur Road. Sacred by what was going on, the nearby shopkeepers downed their shutters and the onlookers left the place in a huff.