Hazare supporters erupt in joy,Mumbai’s dabbawalas to skip work

Activists of BJP’s student wing ABVP staged a dharna as part of bandh call given to express its solidarity with the anti-corruption crusader.

Hazare’s supporters outside Tihar jail broke into cheers and shouted anti-corruption slogans after he got permission with some conditions for his indefinite fast at the historic Ramlila maidan in Delhi.

Several schools and colleges remained closed in Madhya Pradesh in support of Hazare’s ‘India Against Corruption’ campaign. Lawyers at Bhopal also stayed away from work affecting court proceedings.

“In the last 120 years,we have not had the occasion to take a day off,come rain or shine. We never stop work. But we have decided to back Hazare’s agitation,” Sopan Mare of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association told reporters in Mumbai

“To support Hazare,as the whole country is doing so,the 5,000 dabbawalas in the city would hold a rally from Churchgate to Azad Maidan tomorrow,” Mare said. The ubiquitous dabbawalas cater to around two lakh people daily.

Rains did not dampen the spirit of protesters who continued to throng the Freedom Park in Bangalore where they continued their dharna for the third day,with veteran Gandhian H S Doreswamy and former Supreme Court Judge Santosh N Hegde among them.

BJP held a protest near Mahatma Gandhi statue on M G Road but former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa who had said he would participate in it,was conspicuous by his absence.

A bandh was also observed in Hazare’s home district of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra with thousands of youth participating in the peaceful protests for a strong Lokpal.