The call for a State-wide bandh on Thursday by the DMK-led Opposition parties to condemn the Centre for its failure to constitute the Cauvery Management Board as per the Supreme Court verdict evoked mixed response in Tamil Nadu. While normal life was not affected in most parts of the capital city, there were road blocks, traffic snarls and skirmishes between the party cadre and the police along the Anna Salai (previously known as Mount Road), the city’s main thoroughfare.
Traffic flow along Anna Salai went haywire when leaders of various Opposition parties led by M K Stalin of the DMK took a demonstration and marched towards Marina Beach. But the police rose to the occasion, blocked the march and whisked away Stalin and other leaders inclusing S Thirunavakkarassar in chartered vans to an air-conditioned marriage hall where they were detained for some time. Stalin addressed the media while he was still in detention at the hall.
The leaders expressed happiness over the media coverage they got as all Tamil news channels beamed the live pictures uninterrupted for hours. Elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, bandh evoked partial response as many shops and establishments remained closed and public transport stayed off the roads.
Southern Railway said in a release that though there were instances of some long distance and suburban trains getting delayed due to rail roko by activists, the services were operated normally. No untoward instances has been reported from anywhere in the State. A senior police official said the forces had been instructed to observe maximum restraint while dealing with the activists and not to get provoked by any of their actions.
Tamil Nadu Minister for fisheries D Jayakumar, who is also the spokesman of the Government said that the DMK has been trying to topple the Government from 2016 itself. “This bandh and other agitations are part of the move to topple the Government but they will not succeed,” he said. The Minister said that Tamil Nadu Government was exerting pressure on the Centre in a democratic manner to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.
Stalin said he has convened a meeting of all Opposition parties on Friday to dicuss the future course of action in the agitation against the Centre and the Edappadi Palaniswamy Government to get the CMB constituted. Thursday’s bandh was the second in this week as various farmers’ assocciations had observed a bandh on Tuesday for the same cause.