Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital city, virtually turned into a police fortress on Sunday as the Congress-led UDF Government stood determined to defeat the indefinite siege to be laid to the State Secretariat from Monday by the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF demanding Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s resignation for his alleged role in the infamous solar scam.
A minimum of 8,000 police personnel, including about 3,000 men from Central paramilitary forces, in full riot gears, were deployed at the Secretariat and across the city to block the tens of thousands of lDF workers who were expected to arrive to lay siege to the nerve-centre of State Administration. The lDF wants Chandy to face a judicial probe after resigning over the scam.
Thousands of personnel have also been deployed in various districts and inter-district borders to block the activists from leaving for the State capital. Kannur district, known as the Marxist heartland of Kerala, witnessed the heaviest concentration of forces.
The lDF repeated its warning to the Government not to try drowning their agitation in blood using Central forces while the Government reiterated its “commitment” to take every necessary step to ensure smooth functioning of the Secretariat. Urgent meetings of the State Congress and UDF leaderships decided to give total support to the Government.
leftist agitators started pouring into the capital city by road and rail despite the State-wide security arrangements by the police, who had been cancelling permits of chartered vehicles carrying agitators and reservations by trains, reducing the number of State-run bus services and blocking workers on inter-district borders.
The police, who would keep the entire capital city in their control till the indefinite siege ends, have asked contractors of public comfort stations not to lend toilets and bathrooms to agitators and even house-owners in the city have been asked not to give food or accommodation to them. However, the police department denies such reports.
The lDF leadership reasserted on Sunday that their siege to the Secretariat would be peaceful and that their intention was to force Chandy to resign and not to create law-and-order problems. The agitation would start at 8 am on Monday in which the lDF leadership expected a minimum of 50,000 people to participate.
The lDF has made arrangements for serving food to all the agitators. Over 4,000 homes belonging to leftist workers have been arranged for the agitators for their primary needs despite the police’s orders not to harbour guests.
Police have divided the capital city into five security zones controlled by Superintendents of Police which were further divided into 10 sectors. Additional DGP A Hemachandran told the media that the Central forces would not be given charge of the security but they would be
kept in reserve to be deployed only in the context of
extreme necessity.
On Sunday, leftist legislators and leaders held a sit-in protest in front of the MlAs’ hostel after the Government banned entry of visitors. The leaders barged into the hostel breaking the gates as no response came from the Government to their protest.
The police have been reportedly instructed not to open fire at agitators even in extreme circumstances as Intelligence reports have warned of possibility of State-wide unrest in the case of such an eventuality. The Government’s resoluteness to defeat the stir and the lDF’s determination to make it a success have heightened the anxiety among the city’s citizens.
By Sunday afternoon, Chief Minister Chandy said that he Government would talk to the lDF leadership if it was willing but the left said they could join talks after Chandy resigned. Sources said that the UDF meeting on Sunday proposed honoring the leftist demand for a judicial pribe into the scam.
Clear indications came out on Sunday that Chandy was getting increasingly isolated in the Congress and the UDF. Three constituents of the ruling UDF stayed away from the front leadership’s meeting held on Sunday evening and even Congress leaders aired support for demands for his resignation.