PANJIM: Nearly 100 workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were detained by the police and later released on bail for organizing a protest march close to the Goa Assembly Complex where Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed due to the ongoing Assembly session.
AAP volunteers were marching towards the Assembly complex protesting the failure of the MLAs to raise the issue regarding Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) officer Dilip Malavankar, a relative of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who was arrested last year for allegedly taking a bribe.
AAP co-convenor Valmiki Naik said their workers were marching with a memorandum to all the 39 MLAs questioning why no one has spoken on Malvankar in the ongoing session. Malvankar, who was accused in a bribery case, was suspended from service and then reinstated. They also demanded that CM Laxmikant Parsekar resign.
Mentioning that Section 144 of the IPC was imposed and their workers stopped from marching ahead, Naik claimed that the police manhandled the ladies and other workers and two workers were injured in the clashes and later admitted to Goa Medical College (GMC).
Due to the protests, there was major traffic congestion in the city and several MLAs reached late to the Goa Assembly.
In a statement released to the media later, AAP condemned the ‘fascist BJP government which has violently suppressed many such peaceful protests’. “But try as it may, the corrupt BJP cannot stop the voice of the common man. AAP pledges to complete its mission and will urge both the opposition MLAs as well as the ruling MLAs to demonstrate their opposition to such blatant corruption,” the statement said.
An AAP delegation will visit the State Secretariat on Thursday to hand over the memorandum to the 39 MLAs.
