CHENNAI: The clamp on the protest by Joint Action Council of Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTTO-GEO) by police on Tuesday left railway commuters fuming as they were subjected to scrutiny and forced to produce their identity cards.
Police personnel who were deployed at railway stations and bus termini to screen protesters caught rail commuters unawares with many, including women, expressing their displeasure after police forced them to display their employee identity cards.
While hundreds of protesters were taken into preventive custody at railway stations and bus termini, State police were deployed at Chennai Central, Egmore, Tambaram and Tiruvallur stations. Police were posted at CMBT terminus and Perungalathur bus stands from 4.30 am.
As trains from Tiruchy, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari arrived at Egmore station from 5 am, police personnel stopped men and women passengers who got down from the trains. Office-bearers of JACTTO-GEO were arrested at the station itself. At Chennai Central, police gathered on platforms one and eight.
As the passenger crowd swelled after 6 am, police struggled to identify government employees and they randomly stopped rail passengers at exit gates and asked them for identity cards.
Many women passengers picked up a quarrel with police at Chennai Central, Tiruvallur and Tambaram stations after they were asked to show their employee identity cards.
“While leaving the Central station, I was asked whether I was a government teacher. When I replied, I work for a private company at Mylapore, they asked me to prove it. Why should I have to prove my employer details for leaving the railway station?” asked K Shanthi, a regular rail commuter from Tiruvallur.
After facing stiff opposition from passengers, police let the passengers go without showing their identity cards. Chennai RPF Senior Divisional Security Commissioner Louis Amuthan said they received an intimation to cooperate with the State police for arresting the JACTTO-GEO members at stations.