Congress workers torched an effigy of the Centre while staging demonstration at all the district headquarters of the State to mark the second anniversary of demonetisation on Saturday

On the call given by the State Congress president Pritam Singh, the Congress leaders and workers assembled at the state party office on the day and marched to Astley Hall where they put an effigy of the Centre to flames by way of venting anger against the Centre’s demonitisation  move made two years ago. 

The Congress leaders who participated in the protest march alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Government have been fighting shy of the demonetisation issue both in the Parliament and outside. Recalling the public inconvenience triggered by the move which lasted for several days, resulting in many deaths, the Opposition party leaders said that the Centre had made the whole nation to stand in unending queues outside the banks for hours daily during the time.

They also mentioned that as many as 165 people had died while waiting to withdraw their hard-earned money from the ATMs.

They said that the move had resulted in the closure of many industrial units, throwing lakhs out of jobs.

The State Congress vice- president Surya Kant Dhasmana said that the Congress has remained active in protecting the interests of the poor, labourers and farmers. “By contrast, BJP is pandering to the interests of the rich.   While the Congress-helmed United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) Government  waived off loans of the farmers to the tune of Rs 70,000 crores the BJP-led NDA regime is busy aggravating the woes of the farmers. The demonitisation coupled with GST has crippled the growth of the economy, development has come to a standstill and people are being thrown out of jobs,” he said. 

Other Congress leaders held the demonetisation and GST responsible for the spiralling prices of the essential commodities.

They affirmed that their party would continue to protest whenever the BJP-helmed Government takes any step which goes against the interests of the common people.

They also said that they would fight for the interests of the traders who are at the receiving end of the GST.

Among the leaders present at the programme were the former Minister Matbar Singh Kandari, former MLA Rajkumar, chairman of disciplinary committee Pramod Kumar Singh, Prabhu Lal  Bahuguna, Mahanagar president Lal Chand Sharma, chief programme coordinator Rajendra Shah and spokesperson Garima Dassauni.