Saturday, 14 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
In order to intensify their protest against the Uttarakhand Government for inviting e-tender of private contractors for the packaging and supply of take home ration (THR) in all districts, women of various self-help groups protested outside the Secretariat in Dehradun. A large number of women started their protest against the State government on Thursday as according to them, if the THR work will be carried out by the private companies it will snatch the livelihood of over two lakh women in State.
When no government official responded to their protest on Thursday, the protestors said they decided to gherao the secretariat. “We just want the government to give back to us the work we have been doing for the past eight years. This is the reason we are protesting for the rights of over two lakh women. The government is constantly telling us that we will not be jobless because of this tender but it fails to tell us what we will do other than this work. We cannot leave fighting for our livelihood on the basis of some verbal assurance,” said Shyama Devi from Nari Shakti Swaroop Mahila Pradesh Sangathan (NSSMPS). She said that the women protested outside the secretariat to meet State government representatives but they did not receive any response. “When the city magistrate Kusum Chauhan came to the protest site, we gave a memorandum to her for the secretary of the department of Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD).
We have clearly stated in it that if the government will not cancel the e-tender soon, all the SHGs women will commence an indefinite hunger strike,” informed Devi. Another protesting member Pooja Dwivedi also said that it is appalling how the only women cabinet minister in State is planning to snatch the employment of several women. She also questioned that the officials from WECD has also made statements that this e-tender process for inviting private contractors is done under the Central Government’s order then why it is not being followed in other the States and why the same tender was cancelled by the dormer CM Tirath Singh Rawat. “No such statements are reliable and we will fight for our livelihood, ” Dwivedi stated.
