Citizens in rally chokehold as ASHA workers take to streets

Kolkata: Thousands of accredited social health (ASHA) workers from across the state took over large parts of Kolkata, including Howrah station, Sealdah station and Karunamoyee in Salt Lake, on Wednesday. They planned to march towards the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake, pressing for their demands, chief amongst which were a monthly honorarium of Rs 15,000, a Rs 5 lakh insurance cover in the event of death on duty, a govt job for a family member, and permanent and maternity leaves. Traffic was thrown out of gear across city, with SN Banerjee Road remaining shut for eight hours for the second consecutive day and traffic on the Swasthya Bhawan Road resuming only after 7 pm.The demonstrators vowed to continue the protests, announcing they would observe a "dhikkar diwas" on Thursday to protest against "continued obstruction and suppression of their movement".
As cops set up barricades at multiple spots to stop the protesters, clashes ensued, throwing traffic out of gear. While SN Banerjee Road, Lenin Sarani, AJC Bose Road and JL Nehru Road were hit, slow traffic around Sector V was reported all through the day. Traffic was severely affected around Chingrighata and Salt Lake Ring Road briefly in the morning.A political rally by ISF at Shahid Minar added to the traffic challenge on Wednesday. With hundreds of supporters trying to reach the heart of the city, even planned diversions failed to speed up traffic on key north-south links, like CR Avenue, AJC Bose Road and APC Roy Road, cops said.Protesters claimed they were stopped by cops while trying to board trains and buses to Kolkata from the districts. They were again blocked on reaching Sealdah and Howrah stations. Breaking the police cordon after a 4-hour effort, a section tried marching from Howrah station to Salt Lake and was stopped on MG Road. Those in Sealdah were stopped at Moulali.Barricades were put up in front of Swasthya Bhawan and on SN Banerjee Road. A scuffle broke out between the workers and the police when the former broke the barricades. Attempts by opposition leaders, like BJP's Locket Chatterjee, were stalemated as the demonstrators insisted they would not let politics enter their protest.Indira Mukherjee, deputy commissioner of police, central division, said there was no programme lined up in central Kolkata. "ASHA workers did not inform us about any programme in the central division," she said.In Salt Lake, where over 1,000 protesters tried blocking traffic near Karunamoyee for half an hour, the speed of vehicles slowed down near Nicco Park at the entrance to Sector V. Gradually, the snarl extended to Chingrighata. After that, traffic from Chingrighata to Sector V almost came to a standstill for an hour.Some regular commuters complained that the ISF supporters' vehicles went to Esplanade via Science City, causing traffic jams at the crossing, apart from Topsia and Park Circus. But the cadre was disciplined and cooperated with cops, police said. Vehicles that took Lenin Sarani from AJC Bose Road and those from Sealdah were diverted towards Mullickbazar. In Sector V, traffic from Swasthya Bhawan to Wipro More was stopped but diversions continued through alternate roads.The SN Banerjee Road-JL Nehru Road crossing was barricaded to prevent the protesters from heading towards Salt Lake. After a tussle between protesters and KP female officers, a few ASHA workers were detained and sent to Lalbazar in a prison van.The ASHA workers, who were on a ‘cease-work' since Dec 23, claimed health secretary N S Nigam had assured them he would hear their grievances on Jan 21. But state officials said no such assurance was given and no prior intimation about the protest was received. State minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya appealed to ASHA workers not to fall prey to "provocation". "Do not become victims of politics. Those instigating you have no standing in the state," she said.