Thursday, 21 July 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Carrying bundles of grass and sickle, the Congress workers hold protest at DM office
The Uttarakhand unit of Congress party is continuing to corner the state government for the recent incident in Helang village of Chamoli district. On Wednesday, the workers of Uttarakhand Mahila Congress organised a protest outside the office of district magistrate of Dehradun. As a gesture of solidarity with the women of Helang village who were allegedly harassed by security personnel, the Congress workers carried bundles of grass and sickles with them.
Addressing the workers, the State president of Mahila Congress, Jyoti Rautela said that the Helang incident is an attack on the prestige and identity of Uttarakhand. She said that every resident of Uttarakhand is feeling ashamed after the incident. Rautela said it is common knowledge that the women of Uttarakhand collect fodder for their cattle to help their families earn livelihood. She added that the misbehaviour with the women is actually an insult to the entire womenfolk of Uttarakhand who are already reeling under acute price rise.
Launching an attack on the government, she said that thousands of Nalis of land which was part of forest, pastures, panchayat and other purposes has already been handed over to the companies in the name of hydro power plants but even then these companies are planning to grab more land from the villagers. Rautela said that this attitude of these companies has created a crisis of fodder and firewood for the villagers and the Helang incident is the result of this crisis. She said that not only trees were felled in the name of dumping zone; the last pasture land of the village is also being snatched. The Mahila Congress president said that it is unfortunate that the women were insulted on the occasion of Harela festival. She said that on one hand the state government has set up a rhetoric of Ghasyari Kalyan scheme and on the other hand it is snatching the fodder from the hands of the Ghasyaris.
Rautela said that the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami should seek apology for the incident and the state government should take punitive action against those involved in the incident.
