Samajwadi Party men hold protests against govt’s ‘anti-people policies’
LUCKNOW : Samajwadi Party (SP) members on Monday held dharnas and demonstrations across the state against, what they called, “BJP government’s anti-people policies, especially related to youth and farmers.”
“At several places, police lathi-charged the protestors and a large number of them courted arrest,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary in a statement.
“The administration had put barricades at all tehsils, but could not stop the ‘red wave’,” said Chaudhary. Red is colour of the party’s flag and most protesters were wearing red caps and masks. “The sole intent of the protestors was to go to tehsil offices and hand over memorandums of demands addressed to the governor,” said Chaudhary. The demonstrations were held on the instruction of the party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
“Police, without any provocation,
lathi-charged party workers in Kannauj, Farenda (Maharajganj) and Banda,” he said.
The protest was also over unemployment, farm issues, corruption in medical and health during the Covid crisis, irregularities in health services, government atrocities and collapse in law and order, said Chaudhary.
In Lucknow, the SP workers protested at all the five teshils -Sadar, Mohanlalganj, Sarojini Nagar, Bakshi Ka Talab and Malihabad. In Meerut, senior
party leader Shahid Manzoor and in Amethi MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh sat on dharna when police stopped them from going to the tehsil headquarters.
In Barabanki, SP men protested in bare-chest, while in Basti MLA Sidharth Nath Singh participated in the protest on an ox-cart. In Moradabad, protestors took out a procession riding on several ox-carts while in Agra, district president Ramgopal Yadav was put under ‘house arrest’ by the police, said the SP statement.