Vijayawada: Police arrest Anganwadi workers

Vijayawada : The police arrested as many as 1,000 Anganwadi workers at various places in and around the city on Wednesday, after they gave a call for laying siege to the Collectorate. Several Anganwadi workers sustained injuries in the melee.

CPM state secretary V Srinivasa Rao was arrested and state executive member Ch Babu Rao sustained injuries when the police lifted him into the police van.

The leaders of CPM and CITU took strong exception to the threats of the government that the Anganwadi staff would be removed from service instead of solving their problems.

They said that the Anganwadi workers are demanding the implementation of assurances of the chief minister on hike in salaries. It is condemnable that the chief minister has been maintaining silence though the Anganwadi workers have been on strike for the last 23 days.

Several Anganwadi workers were admitted to the hospital with injuries. The police shifted the arrested workers to the Police parade ground and the Patamata police station and later released them.

D Rama Devi, K Subbaravamma, P Ajay Kumar, N Srinivas, Sridevi, Supraja, Gajalakshmi and others were among the arrested.