‘Those protesting are not genuine ASHA workers’

Kozhikode: CPM politburo member A Vijayaraghavan alleged that those protesting before the Secretariat, as part of strike by ASHA workers, were made to sit there after being provided cash and food.
"The protest is not being conducted by genuine ASHA workers. There are around 20,000 ASHA workers in the state, and they are not part of the protest. Some 500 people were brought in from various places and made to sit there after being provided cash and food," he said, while inaugurating the TP Kuttettan memorial meeting at Edappal in Malappuram on Wednesday.
"If ASHA workers go, then anganwadi workers or others will be brought in and will be made to sit there. A conspiracy is being hatched in Kerala to overthrow LDF by making poor people remain in the forefront by providing them money," he said.
ASHA workers were appointed not through PSC but by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and so the protest should be directed against Modi, he added. tnn