Hundreds of Rasoiyas held an angry protest in front of the Muzaffarpur DM office under the banner of the Bihar Rajya Vidyalaya Rasoiya Sangh. The Rasoiyas blockaded the main gate of the office and held a meeting and submitted a memorandum with the following demands: government employee status for Rasoiyas; and a monthly wage of Rs 21,000 with all facilities given to other government employees. The protest was led by State President Saroj Choube, Sharda Devi, Parshuram Pathak and Manoj Kumar Yadav. Addressing the meeting Saroj Choube said that the Nitish government is spending crores on Champaran Satyagraha centenary celebrations; on the other hand, lakhs of Rasoiyas in the State are being paid a mere Rs 34. While the Champaran Satyagraha drama is being staged in Muzaffarpur, Patna, and Champaran, the Motihari sugar mill workers have not being paid wages for a long period, due to which they are being forced to commit suicide. The Nitish government, pretending hypocritically to follow Gandhi, is actually brutally attacking workers and farmers with lathis and bullets. Com Saroj further said that the Modi government is bent on implementing anti-worker policies and the brutal repression on Maruti workers is continuing. The Patna and Delhi governments are both pandering to corporate houses and are working against farmers, workers, and women. They are fomenting an atmosphere of communal hatred and tension in the country in order to divide the struggles of the poor and the workers. The speakers at the meeting stressed that the lakhs of workers on contract/honorarium basis must intensify and strengthen their struggle against the anti-worker policies of the Nitish and Modi government.
