THOUSANDS OF weavers took out a procession from Gorakhnath area and marched towards the Collectorate on the second consecutive day to register their protest over erratic power supply and harassment of the weavers by the power corporation staff. They even offered namaz on the district magistrate’s office premises and condemned the apathetic attitude of the state government in resolving the problems faced by the weavers.
The agitated youths blocked traffic at Surajkund for half an hour and later staged a demonstration at the district magistrate’s office.
Speaking on the occasion, corporator Nabiullah Ansari, leader of Bunker Front Nafees Ansari, Mohd Zaheen, Habibur Rehman Warsi, Islamuddin and others said if the government would not consider their demands to provide electricity to the powerlooms on subsidised rates like the farmers in the state, the peaceful agitation could take a violent turn and the district administration would be responsible for it.
Condemning the Mulayam Singh- led government for meting out a stepmotherly treatment to weavers, corporator Islamuddin Ansari, Asgar Ali, Sirajuddin, Chaudhary Moinuddin, Akbar Ali and others said that the state government should remember that it was in power due to the overwhelming support of the minority community and 85 per cent of the minority community members were weavers.
The leaders of weavers’ group said they were not demanding free electricity but were in favour of electricity supply to the weavers at a fix rate instead of meter reading and other states were providing such facilities to weavers.
{{/usCountry}}The leaders of weavers’ group said they were not demanding free electricity but were in favour of electricity supply to the weavers at a fix rate instead of meter reading and other states were providing such facilities to weavers.
{{/usCountry}}They handed over a five-point memorandum to be forwarded to Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and gave a reminder to him that the SP had promised the weavers to provide electricity at par with the farmers. They demanded uninterrupted power supply in areas where powerloom units were run. In their memorandum, the UP Bunker Front demanded the revival of the UP Handloom Corporation and to restart the purchasing of handlooms .
They accused that the non-Congress government had ignored the weavers and all the 23 spins mills started by the previous Congress government had been closed. Qamruzzama Ansari said 70 per cent employees of the corporation were forced to take voluntary retirement and 30 per cent employees of the corporation had not received their salaries for the past three years.