The Hindu : Kerala News : Plan to regulate demonstrations on arterial roads in city Law & order

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Kerala

Plan to regulate demonstrations on arterial roads in city Law & order

The police are devising ways to reduce hardship caused to the people by frequent demonstrations by political parties, writes Biju Govind.

The city police plan to convene a joint meeting of representatives of political parties and their feeder organisations to discuss ways to reduce hardship caused to the public by processions on arterial roads during peak hours.

Senior police officials have mooted this initiative considering the frequent demonstrations by political parties or their affiliates. The protest marches result in traffic snarls even at places where no agitations are held. A consensus was needed among political parties in this regard, an officer said.

On Thursday, the police had to block vehicular traffic at the Muthalakulam junction and Pushpa junction in the afternoon leading to traffic snarls in the area for more than three hours.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) took out a march to the office of the National Yuva Co-operative Society whose secretary is K. Surendran, State president, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). The BJYM activists also held a demonstration.

The police have been accused of being a “facilitator to political parties to carry out demonstrations.”

“But our primary aim is to avert a clash between the two groups,” said Anup Kuruvilla John, Kozhikode City Commissioner of Police.

A senior personnel said that 80 per cent of the job of the police department was wasted on law and order problem created by mainstream political parties. On June 11, activists of the district unit of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) took out a march to the office of the Deputy Director of Education here demanding that the government withdraw the alleged controversial contents in a textbook of social studies of Class VI.

Activists of the Youth Congress took out a march to the office of the Additional Director General of Police at Nadakkavu on June 4 in protest against the police action on them the previous week.

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