Dharwad: Thousands of poor people led by members of the district unit of Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI) held a mega protest here on Friday demanding the government to rectify anomalies pertaining to Public Distribution System (PDS).

The protesters urged the government to forgo the decision to give money instead of food grains and withdraw coupon system under the PDS system. This apart, they demanded an increase in the amount of pension under social security schemes.

Poor and working class people from different parts of the district had converged in Dharwad on Friday morning raising slogans such as “stop subsidy for corporate, distribute food grains to poor, food is our right, not alms given by Govt” all along the protest.

The rally started from Kalabhavan and reached DC office where the protest turned into a massive gathering which was addressed by SUCI District Secretary Ramanjanappa Aldalli, District Committee members H G Desai, Lakshman Jadagannavar, Gangadhar Badiger among others. The speakers took both the State government and the Centre to task for not keeping their promises made during the election. While the Modi government assured to rectify problems created by the UPA government and the Siddaramaiah government started the “Anna Bhagya” scheme, could not keep their words. Instead, they started cutting down facilities under the scheme which proved detrimental to the life of poor.