By Vijay Rawat, People’s Democracy Vol. 29, No. 44.
IT was one of those fine sunny days for which the hills and valleys of Uttarakhand are normally known in autumn after a long and severe spell of rains. As per the news that poured in from one town after another, CPI(M) activists and a spectrum of trade unions and other mass organisations organised ‘Chakka Jam,’ ‘Rasta Roko,’ protest rallies and dharnas throughout the state on September 29 — on Badrinath highway, at Rudra Prayag, on Kedarnath highway, at Pauri, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Lansdowne, Kortdwar, Shaktinagar, Rudrapur, Sitarganj, Haldwani, Bageshwar and Almora.
It was thus a busy day, a successful day, an enthusing day — the culmination of a long campaign which in fact began soon after the conclusion of the 18th CPI(M) congress in Delhi in April this year. At Dehradun, the capital city of the state, postal, bank and defence employees, Survey of India Employees and CITU and AITUC activists marched through the Rajpur Road and enforced a chakka jam at the Clock Tower. Another chakka jam was enforced by the CPI(M) at Darshanlala Chowk, in support of the strike.
This success of the September 29 action in the state may be attributed to the enthusiasm generated by the party congress and the campaign that began in earnest after the state committee meeting, with Brinda Karat present, to chalk out a programme of action.
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