Noida: A CPM delegation led by general secretary MA Baby sat on a dharna outside Noida district magistrate Medha Roopam’s house in Sector 27 on Friday, accusing the administration of being “undemocratic” in not allowing them to meet people arrested for the workers’ protest earlier this week. They alleged some of those arrested were brutally beaten by police and claimed CITU Delhi state secretary PV Aniyan and president Virendra Gaur have been “missing” since they were picked up from outside the DM’s office by police.The delegation, which also included and politburo member R Arun Kumar, Rajya Sabha MPs AA Rahim, John Brittas and V Sivadasan, and party leaders Anurag Saxena and Pushpendra Tyagi, said they wanted to meet district magistrate Medha Roopam over the police action against workers who had protested earlier in the week.MA Baby said they were stopped at the Chilla border by police before they could proceed, so the delegation sat down on the pavement without disrupting traffic. “We wanted to meet the DM because of atrocities committed against workers in this area. Our comrades have been arrested and put in jail. We wanted to discuss this with the DM,” he said.After police told the delegation that the DM would meet them, the group was escorted to a police camp and kept waiting. Attempts to reach her office through an MP yielded successive redirections — first to the collectorate, then to the camp office. Neither the DM nor the commissioner appeared. “So we decided to sit outside and wait till she comes,” Baby said.The delegation’s demands included a probe into the alleged manhandling of women workers by male police personnel, the release of jailed workers, and acceptance of the workers’ wage increase demands. Baby later noted that some of those arrested had been released, but said the sit-in would continue.The party also alleged that CITU Delhi state secretary PV Aniyan and president Virendra Gaur had gone missing after being picked up by police from outside the DM’s office around noon.A police senior official said that a few people had gathered at the collectorate without permission during a period when prohibitory orders were in force. “To enquire about them, some were detained. However, immediately after their identity was verified, they were released,” the official said.Another senior administrative official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delegation had not taken a prior appointment and that the DM was on rounds when they arrived. “Later she was at the collectorate office till 6pm, but no one came to meet her. Later people came to the Surajpur collectorate to meet her,” the official said.Delegations from Samajwadi Party and Congress also descended on Noida to demand justice for the workers, but both were stopped by police before they could reach their intended destinations.A 10-member SP delegation led by Leader of Opposition in the UP Legislative Assembly, Mata Prasad Pandey, was stopped on DND Flyway while attempting to meet protesting workers at a factory. “There was a lathicharge here. Injustice has been done against the workers. They were protesting because they were not getting their full wages. I drew the attention of the government to this matter, but the govt did nothing,” Pandey said. He demanded that the labour commissioner and labour inspector investigate and resolve the workers’ grievances.Congress state president Ajay Rai and party workers were placed under house arrest in Sector 52 after arriving in Noida in the morning. Rai said he had come to offer condolences at the residence of Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai, who died earlier this month, and to meet district president Deepak Chotiwala, who had recently injured his leg, and had not planned any protest activity.“Police said they would take us to Police Lines. We refused,” Rai said in a video statement. “We are at a party worker’s house under house arrest. Our demand is the release of the arrested workers, compensation for lost wages, and action against officials who misbehaved with women workers,” he said.Earlier in the day, a workers’ protest in Sector 8 was defused after police and senior officials held a counselling session with the group, which had gathered outside a factory around 9am. Authorities said the workers returned to their duties after what officials described as a communication gap between factory management and workers was resolved through dialogue.
