Congress holds ''Matka Phod'' rally against BJP government

Dehra Dun, June 29 (UNI) Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee today organised ''Matka Phod'' rally against Bharatiya Janata Party's 'failure'in its 100 days in power.

Scores of Congress workers under ''Matra Shakti'' (Congress Women Wing) supported by Leader in Opposition Harak Singh Rawat and Congress State Chief Harish Rawat gathered at Gandhi Park with ''matkas'' (Earthen pots) and moved towards the Chief Minister House. However, the rally was intercepted by police before they reached their destination. Mild scuffle took place between police and protesters. The protesters there upon smashed the matkas on the ground to express their resentment and later handed over the charter of demands to a CM House representative.

Listing the 'failures' of the BJP government the protesters threatened that if the government did not change its working culture the Congress would take recourse to a statewide agitation.

Opposition leader Harak Singh Rawat said most of the areas in the state were facing shortage of water and the government had failed to provide alternative for it. He said the way it was handling the problem it seemd that the public would not be relieved of the problem before six months.

Mr Rawat said the power supply was also not in good shape. He said every day people had to undergo agony of power interruption.

Mr Rawat said the law and order situation was deteriorating day by day. ''The crime graph has increased three fold since the BJP government came to power,'' he asserted.

Earlier State Congress Chief Harish Rawat while addressing a gathering at the Gandhi Park here said under political vendetta the BJP government had either stopped or terminated most of the public welfare programmes initiated by the previous Congress government due to which the wheel of development had stopped turning.

He alleged that the government was posing interruption in the programmes floated for the welfare of the minority communities and was curtailing the rights and facilities given to the SCs, STs, Minorities and Other Backward Classes.

He said the Kanduri government had failed to fulfill the promises made in its election manifesto. He threatened that if the BJP did not bring changes in its working culture the Congress would take recourse to a statewide agitation against it.

UNI