Around 150 party workers assembled at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Park near the commissioner’s office around 11am on Monday and alleged “misuse of law by the ruling party.”
All of them had tied black ribbons around their arms and sat on a ‘silent dharna’ in the park as a mark of protest against the imposition of Section 144.
RLD’s district head, Rahul Dev said, “The administration is misusing the law against opposition parties. Whenever any opposition party wants to organise a political event or protest, we are not granted permission by the administration due to Section 144 imposed in the area.”
“But, the ruling party freely organises its political events and has access to permission that allows huge gatherings,” he said.
In agreement with Dev, Congress district head Avneesh Kajla said, “By misusing Section 144, the government has proved that the Constitution is not important when it comes to BJP.”
Meanwhile, SP’s district head Chaudhary Rajpal Singh said the BJP government is trying to deviate attention of citizens from important issues by introducing CAA and NRC.
SP workers said they went to the district administration on December 17 to ask questions regarding the imposition of Section 144.
“We went to the administration bodies in December to ask about the significance of Section 144, but they failed to give satisfactory answers. We demanded a written explanation, but none paid heed,” said Anand Prakash Siddharth, leader of SP’s student wing.
On Saturday, SP workers again approached district authorities with queries about Section 144, but didn’t get satisfactory answers, he added.
Prasanta Patnaik