Congress and other political parties today took out protest marches and held rallies across Gujarat as part of 'Jan Akrosh Diwas' to protest hardship caused to the public due to the Centre's demonetisation move.
Congress party workers held a bike rally from Shahibaug to Lal Darwaza in old city area here with top state Congress leaders including Leader of Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela, state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki, and party MLAs, addressing a gathering.
Members of AAP and NCP, who also held rallies here, were detained by the police.
Taking a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vaghela said the common man is struggling to withdraw his own hard- earned salary.
"Modi has done this (demonetisation) keeping in mind the upcoming state assembly elections. But (Central) government should keep the interest of public before that of party.
"Only this BJP government can create a system where police will beat you for struggling to withdraw your own money," he said.
Accusing Modi of "following the Hitler mode of functioning", Solanki claimed the Prime Minister will "give money deposited by public to industrialists whose loan defaults run in lakhs of crores".
Congress also held rallies at Banaskantha where party workers handed over a memorandum to the Collector.
A group of farmers blocked a state highway in the district, halting traffic for hours before police dispersed them. Markets in the tribal town of Naswadi in Chhota Udepur district remained closed following a call made by traders there.
NCP's Gujarat unit too staged a protest near Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building here.
Police detained around 70 party workers, including 15 women workers, saying they did not have police permission to hold the protest rally.
However, senior NCP leader Praful Patel and Gujarat NCP president Jayant Patel were allowed to go inside the RBI building to make a representation to the bank officials.
Praful Patel alleged the BJP-led government and the RBI have failed miserably to address the issue of cash crunch post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes which was announced by Modi on November 8.
"We are with government on this fight against black money. But our contention is that people are facing immense problems even 20 days after demonetisation. Neither government nor RBI has any roadmap to deal with the problem of cash crunch. It is also unfortunate that we are not allowed to raise the issue concerning poor citizens," the former Union Minister said.
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