TN bandh: Stalin and others court arrest
CHENNAI: Normal life was on Tuesday partially hit in Tamil Nadu by the dawn-todusk bandh called by Dmk-led opposition parties in support of drought-hit farmers.
Shops and business establishments downed their shutters while functioning of government and private offices besides public transport services remained largely unaffected.
DMK Working President M K Stalin, who was among hundreds of persons arrested for staging protests across the state, claimed that the bandh was a total success.
Besides DMK, Congress, CPI(M), CPI, VCK and IUML apart from trade unions affiliated to them, farmers bodies and the film fraternity supported the shutdown, which was also observed in neighbouring union territory of Puducherry.
The bandh call, which evoked a mixed response, was not supported by both factions of AIADMK, BJP, MDMK, PMK and TMC.
State Ministers Sellur Raju and Dindigul C Sreenivasan termed the bandh as “totally unnecessary.”
Srineevasan dismissed the shutdown as “a publicity seeking exercise” which, he said, will not cut ice with the people.
He said the state government had taken all steps to address the farmers' grievances, including adequate relief.
Barring a few incidents of stone pelting, the shutdown was by and large peaceful, police said. The strike was marked by agitations, road and rail blockades with shops and establishments, vegetable markets and cinema halls remaining shut in several parts of the state.
However, public transport, including train and bus services, were largely unaffected.
Private cab services operated though a major chunk of autorickshaws remained off the roads. Though banks and private offices functioned normally, a section of bank employees staged a protest on the arterial Anna Salai here in support of the bandh.
They were led by All India Bank Employees Association C H Venkatachalam and CITU leader A Soundararajan.
The shutdown call was given at an “all-party” meeting covened by Stalin asking the central and state governments to fulfil the demands of farmers and farm labourers. They sought adequate relief, loan waiver by nationalised banks and setting up of Cauvery Management Board to address non-availability of water for irrigation. Stalin along with former Union Minister T R Baalu and others courted arrest after staging a ‘road roko' in the Cauvery delta town of Tiruvarur.
Cadres of DMK, CPI(M), CPI and others were also detained by police. All of them were let off in the evening. CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction restraining the Tamil Nadu government from opening or relocating state run TASMAC liquor shops along national or state highways.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, said the order would be in force for three months or until further orders. It granted the interim injunction on petitions by DMK leader R S Bharati and Advocates Forum for Social Justice.
The PILS were filed after an April 21, 2017 circular of Commissioner of Municipal Administration requested all the Municipal Corporations and Municipalities to pass resolutions to take over roads of the state and national highways within their limits and to submit a report on April 25.
The petitioners contended that the circular was intended to bypass the Supreme Court directive on location of liquor shops and said that it was "a colourable exercise of power".
Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy cited the Punjab example, saying after the administration wanted to change the nomenclature of roads, Haryana High Court had upheld the decision and the Supreme Court was yet to pass orders on the matter. The bench, after hearing the AG, said it was constrained to pass the order as he could not give an undertaking that efforts to reclassify highways would not lead to reopening of closed TASMAC outlets and bars. It then posted the matter to July 10.
When the matter came up, Bharati's counsel said the state government was trying to displace the effect of the apex court verdict, when even the legislature had no power to do so. Pointing out that local bodies do not have elected councils since October 2016, the counsel said municipal corporations, as per Article 243 of the Constitution, are self-governments and so cannot adopt resolutions. Such decisions cannot be adopted by the executive or those appointed as special officers, he said.