Tamil Nadu   

Pollachi observes bandh against merger move

— Photo: M. Balaji

UNIted IN PROTEST: Shops and commercial establishments remained closed in Pollachi on Tuesday.

POLLACHI: Shops, eateries and commercial establishments on Tuesday downed shutters in Pollachi and nearby Anamalai and Kinathukadavu, protesting against the Railway Ministry’s decision to transfer the 79-km Pollachi-Palakkad/ Kinathukadavu stretch to the Palakkad division.

The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its allies — the Congress and the Communist Party of India — had called for a 12-hour bandh, supported by the Pollachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam and numerous trade associations.

Autorickshaws, vans, cars and jeeps kept off the road.

Several educational institutions declared a holiday. The Pollachi vegetable market, one of the biggest in the region, remained closed.

Bus services to Palakkad were affected till the evening, as a section of activists blocked a bus to Palakkad from the Pollachi bus stand.

Urging the Centre to drop the move, the agitators wanted the stretch merged with either the Salem division or the existing Madurai division. It was essential to speed up the gauge conversion between Coimbatore and Dindigul, they argued.

More than 1,000 cadres of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged a demonstration in front of the Pollachi taluk office demanding the Centre drop the move.

The party’s election wing secretary Pollachi V. Jayaraman charged the DMK with double speak on the issue.

He said the DMK Ministers at the Centre had agreed to the merger of the 79-km stretch with the Palakkad division at a meeting called by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad without inviting the Pollachi MP for the meeting.

On the other hand, DMK functionaries organised a bandh opposing the same here.

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