TMC MLAs, workers stage protest against demonetisation

Trinamool Congress MLAs and workers staged dharna outside Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and CGO Complex at Salt Lake protesting against political vendetta of the Centre.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee gave a call for country wide protest rallies against the arrest of her party’s MPs. On Monday morning she tweeted, “Dharna being held over next three days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) in Bengal, Bhubaneswar, Punjab, Kishanganj (Bihar), Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Jharkhand and Delhi. Restrictions should be removed. Hardships being faced by millions due to Demonetisation. Trinamool Congress is organising nationwide protest against Modi babu’s shameless flop-show Notebandi.”

Dharna manchas were being erected outside RBI and CGO complex that houses office of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Senior Trinamool Congress leaders including Subrata Mukherjee, Tapas Roy, Smita Bakshi were on the dharna mancha outside RBI’s office in Kolkata. Mukherjee said, “Modi government introduced demonetisation immorally and RBI has implemented it. It didn’t help the country in anyway instead inflicted harassment on the people. Thus, the decision was taken to hold the protest rallies outside the RBI so that the message reaches them easily. Similarly, CBI is also a Central agency 

because of which the protest rally is being organised outside CGO complex.”

“At the same time our attempt is to take our message to more and more people. Basically, they (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) cannot assess the ill effects of demonetisation. I would request him to go with us to villages to find how farmers are facing hardships due to his arbitrary decision. Potato cultivators are selling potatoes at Re 1 per kilogram,” he said.

Sujit Bose, MLA from Bidhannagar Assembly constituency, councillors of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and other senior leaders were present in the dharna mancha outside CGO complex at Salt Lake. The leaders raised their voice against the arrest of MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and MP Tapas Paul without having any prove against them.

Madan Mitra, the former sports minister, had to appear at the CBI’s office on Monday and he entered the office of the central investigating agency through the second gate.

Protest rallies also took place in both north and south Bengal districts. There were rallies at different places including Asansol, Canning, Jalpaiguri and South Dinajpur. The protest will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The agitation would become stronger in the districts on Tuesday as more people will join the party workers and supporters to protest against the decision of demonetising high value notes.