Ministers failed to stop anti-government protests before elections

Gandhinagar, India

Gujarat Assembly Elections: Keeping in mind the Gujarat elections, the ruling party BJP formed a team of five ministers.

The task of this team was to take quick cognizance of people’s issues to prevent protests and agitations in the state. However, this committee of five ministers, formed to quickly resolve the issues that provoked the protests, has failed to stop the protests in the state.

At least 17 protests are currently taking place in Ahmedabad. Due to this, the pressure is increasing on the state government before the assembly elections in December.

Sources say that PM Narendra Modi in the last meeting held at the BJP headquarters in Gandhinagar had given a deadline of September to end all agitations.

Currently, those protesting for various issues include teachers, class-4 government employees, health workers, farmers, Lok Rakshak Dal (LRD) recruitment candidates, family members of government employees killed on duty, forest guards, mid-day meal workers, Secretariat clerical staff and village computer entrepreneurs.

Hundreds of former and present state government employees on Thursday joined the ‘pen-down’ protest across the state demanding the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). He also announced an indefinite strike from September 27.

Actually, the government had earlier agreed on OPS for the employees who joined the service before 2005. But the proposal was rejected by the National Old Pension Restoration United Front.

At the same time, Class IV employees have a 14-point charter of demands including OPS, no contractual recruitment, pay-grade parity, health insurance, provident fund, etc.

Recently, the Chaudhary community started a protest against the arrest of leader Vipul Chaudhary, who was caught on charges of embezzling Rs 750 crore during his tenure as chairman of Mehsana Dudhsagar Dairy. Farmers of North Gujarat are also protesting in Ahmedabad against the central government’s ‘Bharatmala Project’.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh wants the state government to announce uniform electricity rates for farmers.

However, some objections have also been withdrawn. Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation employees, ex-army personnel and the freight community on Wednesday withdrew their agitation after the government assured them to look into the issue.