Mangaluru : The Congress party in the city staged demonstrations in front of the Gandhi statue near Town hall and in front of the Mangaluru City Corporation as part of the ‘Aakrosh Diwas’ which observed nation-wide on Monday.

The protestors raised slogans against the Union Government as well as the Prime Minister to express their strong protest against the move.

K Harinath, Mayor of Mangaluru who addressed the protestors, made it clear that no bandh call has been given by the party and reiterated that the Congress always stood for the cause of the poor and deprived sections of the society.

Taking strong exception to the statement of the Prime Minister that through demonetization he has made black money holders stand in queues, Harinath said in reality the poor were the worst affected by the Government decision.

Party spokesperson and Corporator Vinayraj who also spoke said the demonetization was resorted to by the government to divert public attention from the Prime Minister’s earlier promise of bringing back black money from abroad.

Congress leaders T K Sudhir, Ramananda Poojary, Vishwas Das, corporators Sabitha Misquith, Youth Congress leader Prithvi Poojary and others were present at the protest in front of MCC.

The other protest near Town Hall was led by Ivan D’Souza, MLC and Chief Whip of State Legislative Council and Ibrahim Kodijal, Interim President of District Youth Congress.

Addressing the protest Ivan D’Souza said, “Demonetisation has not affected the people who have black money, instead it has affected the poor and the labour class of the society. People who were hoarding black money have already invested it in gold, property and bullion.

Speaking on the occasion, Kodijal said the Union Government should waive the loans of farmers who are greatly distressed due to demonetization.

CITU and CPI(M) too held several protests in Mangaluru against demonetization.