Daily-wage earners worst affected by anti-CAA protests and curfew

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Amidst curfew and protests demanding cancellation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the daily-wage earners seemed to be the worst affected ones. With curfew clamped in the city, the daily-wage earners have no option but to wait for normalcy to return so that they can make their both ends meet.

Hemanta Haloi from Chamata selling vegetables in the Chandmari area said, “I’ve experienced the Indo-China war and the Assam Agitation as well. However, I’d never witnessed such a situation.”

Haloi said, “I’ve been in this profession for the last 20 years. This is the only way to earn daily bread for me and my family. If I don’t come to my work even for a day, it’ll land me in trouble and my family. I have sat idle for five days without doing my job. Since the curfew has been lifted for some hours from last two days, I’ve been selling vegetables. However, the seller is not satisfactory.”

Expressing his resentment on the situation he said that this situation should be the last one and the upcoming generation should never experience such kind of situation and that the public shouldn’t forget the situation. “If we can’t go to other countries without permission, why should we allow foreigners to come to our country?” he asked.

An OLA driver Raj Biswakarma said that stopping of internet services has brought the complete shutdown to their service and job as well which is also inviting difficulties to their daily bread.

An auto rickshaw driver Jitu Das said that the situation has landed them in troubles.

Rantu Deka, a vendor, said that the situation has made them throw out perishable goods costing over Rs 6000. He said, “Even though the curfew has been lifted in the last two days, the number of the customer is not satisfactory at all. People usually come to the market in the evening, but that is not happening now. The sudden price hike, scarcity of consumers’ goods and transportation hiccups are causing a lot of difficulties.”

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