Cong takes out candle light march over OROP issue

Congress leaders and workers taking out candle light march in Jammu on Sunday. -Excelsior/Rakesh
Congress leaders and workers taking out candle light march in Jammu on Sunday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 13: Pradesh Congress Committee members and party activists took out an impressive candle light protest  at Bikram Chowk area of Jammu city here today over the issue of OROP and failure of the Modi Govt on various other fronts.
A large number of Congress activists including ex-servicemen and women workers led by senior PCC leaders held a strong protest at  Bikram Chowk today evening raising slogans against Modi Govt, criticizing the functioning of  his  Govt  accusing it of hoodwinking the ex-servicemen and various other sections of the society by  making false claims.
The protest march was the culmination of weeklong candle march protests all over Jammu province over the  non- implementation of OROP and the ill-treatment to the family of  Ram Kishan Grewal and  detention of AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi for expressing solidarity and support to the family.
Leading the protest, former  minister and PCC vice president  Raman Bhalla accused the Modi Govt and BJP of exploiting the ex-servicemen who were promised full implementation of One Rank One Pension Scheme but even after two and half year of coming to power, the ex-servicemen are agitating  for their demands. He referred to the suicide of  Grewal over the demand of OROP  and  lashed out  at the Modi Govt for the insensitive and undemocratic treatment meted out to the family.
Bhalla referred to the worst situation on the borders where people are becoming victim of unprecedented shelling and soldiers getting martyred. It is the result of the  failure of the flip-flop policy of the Modi Govt towards Pakistan while the border residents have not been provided the promised safe shelters.
Prominent among those accompanying included  MS Niaz,  Mula Ram, Vikram Malhotra, Manmohan Singh, Yogesh Sawhney, Shah Mohd Choudhary, Namrata Sharma, Anil Chopra, Indu Pawar, Ashok Dogra, HS Chib, Prof  Gharu Ram,  Manjeet Singh Jatt, Neeraj Gupta, Pawan Raina, Sanjeev Sharma, Dr Ramakant Khajuria, Satish Sharma, Amrit Bali, Bhupinder Singh, Kulbushan Sharma and Chanchal Popli.