Jharkhand police resorts to lathicharge on protesting non-regular staffs, BJP calls government action undemocratic

‘Vidhansabha Gheraw’ of Panchayat Secretariat’s non-regular staff outside the Jharkhand state assembly turned violent on Thursday, December 21, leading to injuries of as many as three agitators after the Jharkhand police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protestors.

According to the reports, non-regular staff of the Panchayat Secretariat were sitting on a ‘dharna’ near the Jharkhand state assembly for the past four days. However, on Thursday, the protestors reportedly tried evading the barricades put up by the administration, leading to a scuffle with the security forces deployed at the spot.

The agitators reportedly tried to force entry towards the assembly premises following which the police used water cannons and tear gas to stop them though soon the agitation turned violent after the protestors allegedly responded with stone pelting leading to a lathicharge by the police which left at least three injured.

Demands of the non-regular staffs

It is to be noted that the staff of the secretariat have been staging a sit-in protest and demanding similar pay scale and regularisation of the non-regular staffs for around four months. According to the protestors, the Hemant Soren government had earlier promised to regularise the contractual staff on a priority basis; however, no concrete steps have been taken by the government in this regard, even after completing around 4 years in power.

It’s been learned that the members of the ‘Panchayat Swayam Sevak Sangh’ have been protesting with these demands for around four months; however, the government has not taken a serious note of their demands, thereby compelling them to ultimately organise a ‘Vidhansabha Gheraw’ on Thursday, December 21.

BJP slams the Jharkhand government

Now after the police  resorted to lathicharge on protestors, it has also triggered political stirring in the state. Taking to social media platform X, the leader of the opposition in the Jharkhand state assembly, Amar Bouri while slamming the Hemant Soren-led government, said that there is no democracy left in Jharkhand: “Jharkhand me Loktantra nahi Thoktantra hai”.

“Thousands of Panchayat Swayamsevaks were protesting peacefully; however, the coalition government has once again displayed its oppressive policies by pushing the police against the protestors. This brutal lathicharge has exposed the hatred of the coalition government against the youth, added Bouri in his post while sharing a video clip of the injured protestors.

It is worth mentioning here that, off late, the Hemant Soren-led coalition government and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Parta (BJP) have been engaged in a fierce battle over issues pertaining to corruption, employment policies, and the state of law and order in the mineral-rich state, where the Narendra Modi-led party has been continuously alleging the Soren government for running the government in an autocratic manner.

Recently, a similar confrontation between the members of the opposition BJP and the government also led to the suspension of as many as three of the BJP’s legislators from the state assembly after they allegedly disrupted peace during question hour, leading to a walkout from the BJP MLAS from the proceedings of the house.