Bharat Bandh flops in Jammu; Cong shows Aakrosh;Mild clashes; FIR registered against Cong leaders

 STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The ‘Bharat Bandh’ call by the opposition parties against demonetisation evoked poor response in Jammu whileas Congress organised protests at many places in Jammu as part of its country wide observation of Aakrosh Diwas.
Commercial activities unaffected and public transport plied normally.
Hundreds of Congress leaders offered court arrests while staging protest over the issue of demonetisation. Protest rallies were organised in various other parts of Jammu Province.
Led by JKPCC Chief, G.A Mir, several senior leaders including CLP Leader N. Rigzin Jora, Dy. CLP leader Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Vice Presidents Raman Bhalla, G.M Saroori MLA, Haji Abdul Rashid MLA, General Secretaries Yogesh Sawhney, Vikram Malhotra, Th. Manmohan Singh, Surinder Singh Channi, Namrata Sharma, Faqir Nath, President DCC Jammu Anil Chopra, Mahila Congress President Indu Pawar, PYC President Pranav Shagotra, Vice Chairman Minority Department Gurdarshan Singh, Secretaries, Shashi Sharma, Neeraj Gupta, Pawan Raina, Thomas Khokhar, Surinder Gupta, Sanjeev Sharma and Abid Kashmiri were taken into custody while holding protest rally at Satwari Chowk. Whereas the police resorted to lathi-charge over Congress leaders at Mishriwala when they were trying to force the shopkeepers to put their shutters down. There was also a mild clash between the Congress and BJP workers.
Earlier, addressing the gathering PCC Chief, Ghulam Ahmed Mir lashed out at the BJP Government in the Centre for its failure on all fronts and vitiating the atmosphere of peace and harmony in the country due to its wrong and divisive policies. He said that the Modi led Government at the Centre has failed to fulfill a single commitment with the people and has brought miseries for the common man due to unprecedented price hike in the country.
“The sudden announcement of demonetisation on 8th November, 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was a move to divert the attention of the countrymen from the real issues. The people are not being able to withdraw and use their own hard earned money, as a result large numbers of casualties have been reported from various parts of the country on account of this decision. They also condemned the anti-democratic attitude of Modi Government and failure to deal with the crisis,” he added.
Senior Vice President PCC, Sham Lal Sharma, while addressing gathering of protesters at Akhnoor, said that the demonetisation has broken the backbone of common people particularly the farmers and labour class. Farmers are not able to withdraw money for fertilisers and seed which will adversely affect the production of ruby crops, he added.
Former Dy Chief Minister, Tara Chand while addressing party workers at Khour expressed his anguish over non-availability of Prime Minister in both the houses of Parliament. He said that the BJP will soon realize the negative effect of demonetisation in rural economy. The village economy which is usually cash dominated has come to a standstill, thereby rendering a lot of people jobless.
Congress today organised massive protests rallies in Jammu province including Satwari , Mishriwala, Akhnoor, Samba, Udhampur, Ramban, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri, Sunderbani, Nowshera, Kathua and Doda. Large number of party workers led by senior leaders of their respective areas took out Aakrosh rallies and raised slogans against Modi Government over its failure to make adequate arrangements before announcing demonetization as a result common people are suffering.
Meanwhile, the party condemned the role of Kanachak police for resorting into unprovoked Lathi-charge over peaceful procession led by senior Congress leaders Mula Ram, Th. Balwan Singh and Hari Singh Chib. During the protest, Th. Balwan Singh received some minor injuries.
Condemning the action of SHO Kanachak, PCC Chief G.A Mir termed it as an assault on democracy as the SHO resorted to unprovoked assault on senior leadership over leading a peaceful procession. The party has demanded appropriate action against the discriminating role of SHO.
While contacted, SHO Kanachak informed that some unscrupulous elements have been forcefully trying to close the establishments at Main Road Mishriwala in which one Rohit Kumar, resident of Mishriwala was injured.
A case has been registered under relevant sections against the accused persons.
FIR 175/2016 under Sections 341, 323 and 147 RPC has been registered at Police Station Kana Chak against Balwan Singh Senior Congress leader, Mula Ram Ex MLA, Hari Singh, Ravikant Seth, Ramesh Singh and others on the complaint of Rohit Verma son of Bodh Raj, resident of Mishriwala BJP leader.
Meanwhile, led by former MLA and Senior Congress leader, Shiv Dev Singh, the party activists assembled at Nagrota Bye-pass and blocked the National Highway as a mark of protest over the demonetisation.
Alleging that the demonetisation drive by the Narendra Modi Government was a scam, Shivdev Singh leader said common people were suffering most and facing hardships.
Even as chaos and panic spreads across the country and the death toll linked to demonetisation goes on increasing, the government does not seem to have any answers to problems being faced by the people. The common man has been the worst hit as a result of this move, with the severe cash crunch resulting in shutting down of markets.
Singh demanded full rollback of the scheme to ensure that no more people die and instant relief is provided to those affected by it.
“Congress does not believe that the Modi Government has the will to take any concrete steps against black money and corruption and that demonetisation is a smoke screen to hide their failures,” he added.
Among those who joined the present include Kanta Bhan, Block President Ram Rattan, Sarpanchs Rumal Singh, Madan Mohan Dubey, Balbir Singh and Krishen Singh and Lucky Youth President Nagrota Constituency.