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People from HP’s Sirmaur stage protest after rift with taxi union
Two days after a scuffle between a tourist guide hailing from Sirmaur and local taxi drivers, people of Sirmaur district engaged in various works in Shimla, staged a sit-in protest
Two days after a scuffle between a tourist guide hailing from Sirmaur and local taxi drivers, near Auckland house school tunnel, people of Sirmaur district engaged in various works in Shimla, staged a sit-in protest outside the deputy commissioner’s office. The locals hit out at panchayati raj and rural development minister Anirudh Singh for his support to the local taxi unions.
The sit-in protest lasted for nearly four hours. Superintendent of police, Sanjeev Gandhi asked the people from Sirmaur to act with restraint and not to take the law in their hand. “Police have taken every step to nab those involved in the incident,” said Gandhi. The tension between locals and Sirmaouri people escalated after the local taxi unions objected to vehicles being plied by owners from Sirmaur.
“People from Sirmaur who work as porters, guides and taxi drivers are being targeted deliberately by local taxi unions and their supporters which is widening the rift,” said Baldev Sharma, who works in the car parking. “ It’s people’s right to earn money,” he said, adding people come off from peripheral areas of the Sirmaur district to earn their livelihood. Protestors asked the panchayati raj minister to withdraw his statement and tender an apology. Leader of the opposition Jai Ram Thakur in a statement issued on Tuesday said that Shimla, the capital belongs to all the people of the state and alleged that the police is not even registering the complaint of the injured people belonging to Sirmaur taxi union. Terming the statement of Anirudh Singh as an attack on the federal structure, he said that it is aimed at “breaking” the state. The law and order in the state has deteriorated in the past six months and the chief minister has no control over his ministers, he added.
