Police arrested about 50 Congress workers who took to the street protesting against what they termed as unsavory and irresponsible statements of two Ministers in the Raman Singh Government here on Tuesday over the outbreak of the jaundice in the State.
Health Minister Amar Agrawal and Woman and Child Development Minister Ramshila Sahu came under sharp criticism from the Congress for their alleged remarks that the State Government was no way responsible for the jaundice outbreak in the State.
The State has been in the grip of massive jaundice outbreak and other seasonal diseases since a fortnight, with reports of jaundice death among others forcing the Congress to stage protest against the pathetic hygienic condition in the cities across the State.
Earlier, a social forum had also served legal notices on the Mayor, Commissioner and Chief Health Officer of Raipur Municipal Corporation for their alleged failure to clean city after the initial breakout of disease. Now, with the Ministers shirking their responsibilities and blaming public for the outbreak, the Congress has got fresh ammunition to attack the Government.
Hundreds of the agitated Congress workers under the leadership of city Congress vice-president Vikas Upadhaya and Mayor Kiran Mayee Nayak marched from the State party headquarters to the official residence of these two Ministers to register their protest.
But the police stopped them before reaching their residents and urged them to disperse, but the Congress workers refused to call off their protest and that forced the police personnel to arrest them. More than 50 party workers were arrested.