Amritsar, July 2

The family members of the Putlighar blast victims on Friday sit on an indefinite hunger strike at Bhandari Bridge here after all the promises made by political leaders remained unfulfilled even after two years of the incident. Bhartiya Moolnivasi Mukti Morcha and Valmiki Adi Dharam Samaj, the two organisations have been supporting the protest.

The family members of the victims, Rajinder Kumar and Rattan Lal who had died in the blast, said though politicians assured them of providing compensation and a government job to kin, they did not bother about fulfilling their promises.

In mid-February, the organisations had held a massive protest in the Putlighar Chowk area. The dharna was lifted after Congress MLA Raj Kumar Verka reached the spot and assured the family of all possible help.

Aman William, vice-president of the Mooknivasi Mukti Morcha, said in the past three months, they had visited the residence of the Congress MLA and he always sought time for the same apparently for procuring time for dilly-dallying their justified demand.

They said they were on hunger strike since Thursday. Neither the administration nor any political party that claimed itself to be the well-wisher of the Dalit community, paid any heed to their grievances. Incidentally, the office of a political party was located near the agitation site.

The organisations threatened to block the Bhandari bridge in case their demands were not met. On September 23, 2019, a blast at the residence of a scrap dealer in the Luv Kush Nagar area had claimed the lives of two persons — Rattan Lal and Rajinder Kumar— while around six persons were injured. They had blamed the police administration for the blast. They had claimed that the police had got the Cantonment police station cleaned and the scrap was sold to the scrap dealer.

The dealer brought the same to his residence in the congested Luv Kush colony in Putlighar. — TNS