Vishakapatnam, April 09: In yet another incident of police high-handedness, some Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, who were taking out a rally in support of their demands in the town, were seriously injured in lathicharge by police. While police action sparked off protests by various organisations in other parts of Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam, home minister Sabita Indra Reddy directed deputy inspector-general (Viskha Range) Soumya Mishra to suspend the circle inspector who had ordered lathicharge. Mishra complied with the orders and suspended Trinath.
In follow-up to yesterday’s protest by ASHA workers in Srikakulam, around one thousand of them, under the aegis of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), started a procession from the railway station to go to District Medical and Health Office (DMHO) to submit a memorandum to DMHO U Swarajya Lakshmi demanding payment of their wages pending since August 2010 and implementation of government order of paying incentives for extra work done by them. As they reached the Hanuman statue, police stopped them from proceeding further. But the women workers continued their march and some of them were engaged in a heated argument with police officials.
While the vehicular traffic came to a standstill at the peak hour of the day and chaos prevailed, around 100 policemen led by One-Town circle inspector T Trinath resorted to lathicharge. As the police chased and beat up the rallyists, they ran here and there for safety. Some of them were injured with Allu Satyavati and D Bhanu Kumari sustaining grave injuries. They were later admitted to the Government Hospital in the town. However, they were stated to be out of danger. Later, police took 25 ASHA workers into custody.
Condemning the police action, district president of ASHA Workers Association K Venkata Lakshmi said it was a matter of shame that instead of mitigating their problems, the government had deployed police to suppress their protest. Demanding stringent action against the police officials responsible for the incident, she threatened that if the authorities failed to do so, they would intensify the agitation.
As the news of police action spread, hundreds of ASHA workers came out to the streets and formed a human chain on NH-5 in Visakhapatnam disrupting the traffic for around 30 minutes. In Vizianagaram also, leaders and activists of CITU and other women organisations staged dharnas at different places of the town.
–Agencies