IAC activists turn up at MPs’ doorsteps

To take the issue of the Jan Lokpal Bill to the doorstep of public representatives,they are planning to hold similar protests outside the houses of Shirur MP Supriya Sule at Modibaug at 11am and MP Prakash Javadekar at Mayur Colony at 5pm on Tuesday.

They will follow it up with Pimpri-Chinchwad MP Gajanan Babar’s house at 11am on Wednesday,said IAC members.

Sandip Khardekar of the IAC said the aim was to take the issue of the Jan Lokpal Bill to MPs. There was no one at Kalmadi’s house as he is Tihar jail but when we reached the house of MP Shivaji Adhalrao Patil,he came out and gave the crowd his support and so there was no protest by the IAC before his house on Monday.

IAC,a conglomeration of 29 organisations,said in a press conference that they had placed a collection box at the venue of protests during morchas,and collected Rs 2.4 lakh of which 1.75 lakh has been spent in making arrangements for the agitation. The IAC declared that they had stopped collecting donations and the remaining would be sent to Arvind Kejriwal’s trust in New Delhi.

Details of the expenses have been uploaded on the website,said Somani at the press meet meet. “We got Rs 85,101.00 in cheques and this would be given to Kejriwal’s trust to support further agitations,’’ he said.

On Monday,the city saw 47 rallies by college groups,societies as well as various other organisations. The members said they would keep the agitation going till the time the Jan Lokpal Bill of Anna is accepted by the government. The meet was also attended by Deepak Baradiya,Dr Satish Rajmachikar and Jugal Rathi.

Meanwhile,various autorickshaw unions held rallies in support of Hazare. One group led by Nana Kshirsagar held a bhajan session in front of Kalmadi’s house. “As per Anna’s directions,we sang bhajans before his house and such nationwide bhajan sessions will be held in front of the houses of all MLAs and MPs. However,police drove us away after a while,” he said. Others held rallies near Dhankawadi,Bharati Vidyapeeth and Balaji Nagar,Pune station and JM Road.

While there were talks of strikes to be held by autorickshaws,the Pune Autorickshaw Federation denied any such plan as of now. Suresh Jagtap,vice-president of the Federation said,“Anna wants us to hold protests without troubling the common man. So as of now there are no plans for strikes.”

Ever since Hazare announced his movement,NIBM Road Residents Forum (NRRF) has been supporting it. Members of NRRF,the Mohalla committee of the area resolved to meet every evening at around 6 pm. Some members,including women and children undertook a fast from 8am to 8pm.

NRRF members have been meeting at NIBM Chowk every evening singing patriotic songs and raising slogans in support of the Bill. ‘What started with just a handful of people a week back has gathered momentum with the participation swelling to about 150-200,” says Alka Kapoor,one of the active participants of NRRF.

The Bhastachar Virodhi Jan Andolan too is scheduled to hold a march on Tuesday.