Chennai: Normal life was partially hit in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday by the dawn-to-dusk 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 Tamil Nadu, claimed that the bandh was a total success.
“The centre and state should take immediate action for the farmer distress,” he said, thanking farmers, public, political parties and all other organizations for taking part in the protests peacefully.
Besides DMK, Congress, CPM, CPI, VCK and IUML, apart from trade unions affiliated to them, farmers bodies and the film fraternity supported the shutdown. The bandh call, which evoked a mixed response, was not supported by both factions of AIADMK, BJP, MDMK, PMK and TMC.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu farmers, who were on protest in New Delhi for 41 days, reached Chennai on Tuesday and participated in the state-wide bandh.
Stalin, who led the protests in Tiruvarur district on Tuesday, was detained along with senior party leader T.R. Baalu. Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM state secretary G. Ramakrishnan, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, CPI state secretary R. Mutharasan and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief S. Thirunavukkarasar took part in the strike in Chennai.
On Sunday, farmers protesting in Delhi, led by P. Ayyakannu, state president of the National South-Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, temporarily called off the protests after chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami met them in Delhi and assured that he would submit a detailed memorandum highlighting their plight to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“If the promises are not met, we would resume the protest in the national capital in a bigger way on 25 May,” Ayyakannu said on Sunday.
The bandh was called at a meeting on 16 April, chaired by DMK working president M.K. Stalin, in which Congress, CPI, CPM, VCK and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) participated.
The opposition parties have demanded a waiver of all the loans given to farmers. The party also urged the Centre and the state government to fulfill the farmers’ demands, including adequate relief and setting up of a Cauvery management board.
“We passed a resolution asking Tamil Nadu farmers in New Delhi to withdraw their protest which has been going on for the past one month. We have requested them to support the April 25 bandh,” Stalin told reporters last week.
Normal life across the state was partially hit as the traders association, trade unions of auto drivers, lorry operators association and the local vegetable markets extended their support to the bandh.
In Chennai, the Koyambedu vegetable market—one of the largest in the state—remained closed. With the film fraternity also pledging support to the bandh, theatres have suspended the first two shows on Tuesday.
However, the state-run transport corporation and trains were operating as usual, and essential services, including supply of milk, were not hit.
Various associations in neighbouring Puducherry have also extended their support to the day-long strike.
Meanwhile, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have termed it as politically motivated and a farce.
In January, the government of Tamil Nadu, which is facing its worst drought in 140 years, declared all 32 districts as drought-affected and urged the Centre to sanction a relief amount of Rs39,565 crore.
On 1 April, the Centre released Rs1,712.10 crore to Tamil Nadu, 4% of what the state government had sought from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to mitigate farm distress.
PTI contributed to this story.