At Dharamshala, protests force government to set-up 'Samanya Varg Aayog' in Himachal

Shimla: In a day marked by protests and unsavory events on the opening day of the state assembly, the Himachal Pradesh government decided to set-up 'Samanya Varg Aayog' — a commission for the upper caste population in the state.

The state government faced massive protests as activists of upper castes, who had reached Dharamshala as part of their ongoing stir against the government demanding setting-up of the Commission for 'Swarna Varg' (upper castes) threatened to gherao the state assembly .

They clashed with the police, broke the barricades and reached upto the main gate of the state assembly complex where Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had reached for the proceedings.

As the House was going to the day's proceedings of obituaries for its former ministers including G S Bali, a congress senior who had died recently, the police were struggling with the protesters to stop them from reaching the state assembly, and reaching a ruckus on the roads.

The police also erected barricades and deployed its personnel armed with lathis to prevent the protesters from moving towards the main gate of state assembly. Tension prevailed at the venue for hours as some protesters also pelted stones. Some police vehicles also got damaged in the clash, the policeman said

Yet, they could not stop the protesters,who marched to the vintage point and compelled the top government officials like Chief secretary Ramsubhag Singh and DGP Sanjay Kundu to convince them to give — up their plan to disturb the state assembly or create any lawlessness.

Three senior cabinet ministers — Mohinder Singh, Suresh Bhardwaj and Sukh Ram Chaudhry also reached out to the protesters and tried to engage them in talks over the issues.

But the ministers faced the slogans of go back and told to bring the Chief Minister as only he could talk to them. Nothing less than acceptance of their demand will be accepted. Otherwise, they would start an indefinite dharna outside the assembly. This really created a crisis in the entire administration.

The Chief Minister arrived at the scene and announced the setting-up of the commission.

He said within the next three months, the commission will be formally constituted and a bill relating to this will be introduced in the state Assembly in March 2021.

The commission, he said, will be set-up on the lines of one already formed by the Madhya Pradesh government and will take care of the welfare of the upper castes, their economic and social well being.

Himachal Pradesh has more than 51 per cent of the upper castes which mainly include Rajputs and Brahmins.

In the day, earlier the opposition also moved a no confidence in the House against the government asserting that the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his cabinet has no moral right, authority and logic to be in the power after having lost four bypolls.

Leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said, "There is an around anarchy in the state, a mafia raj and mal-governance. Chief Minister must step down as he had lost the mandate to rule after the congress having won four bypolls. The people are completely disillusioned and want to get rid of the BJP rule in the state".

The no confidence motion was however rejected by the Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar on the grounds that the congress has not requisite 1/3 of the members to present the no-confidence as only 18 of 22 members of the congress were present.

Agnihotri claimed that they have requisite numbers as the CPM MLA Rakesh Singha is also giving the support.