By IANS,
Chandigarh: Over 80 ‘anganwadi’ workers (village-level social workers) were arrested here Wednesday trying to enter the official residence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to submit a memorandum, police said.
The workers gathered in Sector 2 from various parts of the state and wanted to meet Badal but were stopped just metres away from the chief minister’s official residence.
“Taking preventive measures, we arrested the anganwadi workers. Despite our repeated reminders, they did not stop,”said Harsahai Sharma, the investigating officer.
Usha Rani, president of the anganwadi workers’ union, said: “On Nov 9, some employees of Punjab Raj Samaj Bhalai Board (a state-run unit) were promoted to the rank of supervisor under border area project of state government. They were promoted flouting all rules and regulations.
“Now many Class 8 pass people are supervising post-graduate workers. This is totally intolerable. We just wanted to apprise Badal about this anomaly but the police stopped us and illegally arrested us,” she said.
All the workers were released later in the evening.