CHENNAI: Condemning Centre’s delaying tactics in constituting the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu staged spirited protests while observing a State-wide bandh on Thursday.Road and rail blockades, demonstrations and shutdown marked the bandh, for which the opposition parties led by DMK had issued a call on April 1, three days after the deadline set by the SC for forming the board lapsed.Several parts of Chennai were choked as irate protesters thronged arterial roads, including Anna Salai, with party flags and chanted slogans against the Centre and TN government.
The Anna Statue Junction on Anna Salai was the point of convergence for the protesters. The crowd began to swell as top leaders, including TNC Committee president S Thirunavukkarasar, DK president K Veeramani, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, MDMK deputy general secretary ‘Mallai’ Sathya, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi’s M H Jawahirullah and IUML MLA Abubacker arrived. The Left leaders also joined them.The crowds swelled when DMK working president M K Stalin arrived to lead the road blockade on Anna Salai. His son and film actor Udhayanidhi Stalin also joined the protest.
A little later, the leaders began a march towards the Marina. A large contingent of police attempted to block the demonstrators by placing barricades on Wallajah Road. But the protesters pushed them to make way for the leaders to proceed.Tempers flared when police bundled Stalin into a van. Thirunavukkarasar, Veeramani, Thirumavalavan and other top leaders too were whisked away. The police faced some anxious moments when the protesters besieged the van ferrying the leaders, who were detained in a hall at Perambur. They were released in the afternoon. Vehicular movement on several arterial roads, including Anna Salai and Kamarajar Salai, were affected due to the road blockade and rallies taken out by opposition parties. Bus and train services were disrupted in other parts of the city too.
Clashes at Marina
Kamarajar Promenade, where police finally managed to detain the leaders, witnessed violent confrontation. The protesters broke the barricades barring entry to the beach front. “Three policemen, including a deputy commissioner attached to law and order, were injured. The other two were AR policemen,” said a senior police officer. The trio who suffered head injuries were rushed to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.Protesters were also seen getting on and trying to stop the bus taking leaders to a wedding hall at Purasawalkam, where they were detained.
The police also found sympathisers. An elderly woman near the Chepauk Stadium was seen distributing free water sachets to policemen on duty. K Sivasankari, who runs a roadside musk melon juice shop, had ordered three sacks of water sachets for sale. “After seeing policemen toil in the sun, I decided to give the sachets free of cost to them,” she told Express.
Eateries make a killing
With most restaurants being shut, roadside eateries came to the rescue of the public. The city witnessed a bloom of staple food vendors to cater to the demands of people who had not anticipated the magnitude of the protest. Families at Periamet and Triplicane were seen selling biriyani and meals
Koyambedu market hit
Shops at Koyambedu market were out of business on Thursday. The owners had shut their shops during the last strike two days ago. “I opened my shops as early as 5 am and had barely two customers till noon,” said Govind, a vegetable vendor. Prices of all vegetables came down drastically due to this. “We sold a kg of carrot for `40 two days ago and now we are forced to sell them for `10,” said Malliga, who added that any vegetable that one wanted to purchase cost only `10 per kg
Stalin conducts wedding
Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin made the most of the four-hour detention by conducting a wedding in the hall he was detained at Purasawalkam. The couple, Srimathi and Bharathidasan, who were VCK supporters, were supposed to get married in a nearby marriage hall in the presence of Thirumavalavan. However, a last-minute change was made to ensure that the ‘detained’ Thirumavalavan could still witness the wedding. The couple came in full wedding attire and is said to have initially confounded the protesters, who thought they were being detained in the hall where a wedding was to take place