Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

A protest that compelled attention

K.V. Prasad

SHACKLED: Independent Councillor K. Sampath Kumar comes to the Coimbatore Corporation Council meeting in chains. - PHOTO:S. SIVA SARAVANAN

COIMBATORE: This one took the entire Council by surprise. Even as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam councillors celebrated the new regularisation scheme for unapproved layouts, Independent Councillor from Ward 37, K. Sampath Kumar, strode into the Council (at its meeting) on Friday with a thick chain criss-crossing his body. Reason? A symbolic protest against the Corporation persisting with a police case against conservancy workers. The case was filed against them in August last year when they gheraoed the then Mayor, T. Malaravan, in protest against the move to privatise garbage removal across the city. Criticising the Corporation for having lodged criminal cases against economically weak and socially backward workers, Mr. Sampath Kumar walked all the way up to the Council building (Victoria Town Hall) with the chain drawing the attention of the people. As soon as he entered the Council, he stopped by the first row of Councillors and reeled out his charges against the Corporation. The chain was supposed to speak of the slavery and the burden of the case that the workers were subjected to.

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