Traffic was disrupted for almost four hours across parts of south Kolkata on Friday after several hundred Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) blocked the Rashbehari intersection during their march to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat, demanding higher wages among other things.
The Asha workers were stopped by police and were not allow to proceed. However, that didn’t deter them from demonstrating along a stretch of SP Mukherjee Road.
The protest began close to noon and continued past 4pm, forcing the police to make multiple diversions.
Vehicles headed for Kalighat Metro station from Gariahat were diverted down Sarat Bose Road, and those moving towards the Rashbehari crossing from Tollygunge were asked to travel down Southern Avenue and then take Sarat Bose Road to move towards Bhowanipore and Park Street.
“We had to walk down from the intersection of Sarat Bose Road and Rashbehari Avenue to Kalighat Metro station amidst the afternoon drizzle because buses, minibuses and autorickshaws were diverted,” said Anuradha Dutta Chaudhuri, a Kasba
resident.
As several hundred Asha workers took over the Rashbehari intersection, vehicles bound for Gariahat and headed further east towards EM Bypass were diverted from Chetla and Alipore towards Bhowanipore and further north, to the Exide crossing.
“A series of traffic diversions had to be worked out simultaneously throughout the afternoon so that smaller vehicles, including cars, could take alternative routes,” a senior police officer managing traffic movement in south Calcutta said.
Around 3.30pm, as the crowd started dispersing, the Gariahat-bound vehicles were allowed to move from the Rashbehari crossing in a single lane. Some 15 minutes later, vehicles headed for Tollygunge were allowed to travel further south from Rashbehari crossing.
Over the next half an hour, police officers struggled to allow cars and smaller vehicles to move towards Bhowanipore from the Rashbehari crossing as the demonstrators began to walk away.
“Asha workers have not been receiving their salaries and incentives on time. We demand that the salaries of Asha workers be increased by three per cent every year,” said Ismat Ara Khatun, state secretary, Paschim Banga Asha Kormi Union.
“Asha workers must be recognised as state government employees and the families of the deceased must be paid ₹5 lakh each.”
In March 2024, Mamata had announced a hike in the remuneration of Bengal’s nearly two lakh Asha and anganwadi workers and anganwadi helpers from April.
The hike meant anganwadi workers would get ₹9,000 a month, helpers ₹6,800 and Asha workers ₹5,250, senior officials in the state finance department said.
“The Asha workers receive incentives. But the state government has been irregular about paying this incentive every month. We demand that the Asha workers be brought under the VRS scheme if they are unable to perform their duties due to ailments,” said Papiya Dutta Chakrabarty, an Asha worker.