Over 1,000 rural poor under the leadership of block Secretary Com., Munna Yadav and comrades Rajkumar Paswan, Vijay Paswan, Ibrahim Ansari and others staged a forceful protest at the block office in Jaynagar block, Koderma district, Jharkhand on 22 December 2015. Their main demands were: (i) food security, (ii) ending of corruption in ration cards, (iii) immediate distribution of ration cards, BPL, old age pension for women, (iv) 200 days work under NREGA, (v) speedy implementation of occupancy of farmers’ lands, and other demands. The protest rally marched through various bazaars and reached the block office where a 10 point charter of demands was submitted to the BDO. Impressed by the forceful slogan chanting during the rally, many people came and stood with the protesters. A special feature of the protest was that every CPI (ML) candidate (winning as well as losing) who had stood in the recent panchayat elections was present with their complete people’s support base.
Similarly, on the anniversary of the Markachho firing, (on this date in 2003 three comrades were martyred in the police firing upon the CPI (ML) protest at the Markachho block office) a huge contingent of activists under the leadership of block Secretary Com. M. Chandra staged a dharna protest in front of the Markachho block office. Tributes were paid to the martyred comrades and a charter of demands was submitted to the BDO including the above mentioned demands including demands for making available regular rations under the Antyodaya scheme, 200 days work in a year, Rs 500 minimum wages, and other local demands.
