Trade Union members, bank employees, and workers staged a protest here and at four more places in the district on Thursday as part of the nation-wide general strike.
Coimbatore Member of Parliament PR Natarajan led the protest here and was arrested and later released. He said the government should re-open the NTC mills and the Central and State governments should pay ₹7,500 as compensation to each worker who was affected during the lockdown. The governments should withdraw the anti-labour and anti-farmer laws, he said. Staff of some of the government organisations staged protests on their office premises. Trade Union sources said that over 500 people took part in the demonstration here.
The unions organised protests at Sulur, Valparai, Mettupalayam and Pollachi too.
Members of Coimbatore District Association of All Auto Rickshaw Workers Union protested outside the Regional Transport Office (Central).
Association’s president P.K. Sukumaran said around 5,000 autorickshaws were off the roads within the city due to the strike on Thursday morning and their services resumed in the afternoon.
The protesters met Regional Transport Officer (Central) J.K. Baskaran to complain about the mandatory installation of reflective tapes on autorickshaws for the renewal of fitness certificates. Mr. Sukumaran and around 50 other members were arrested by the Coimbatore City Police. They were detained in a private hall on Avinashi Road and were released in the afternoon, he said.
In Tiruppur, MP K. Subbarayan participated in one of the demonstrations in the city. Speaking to mediapersons, he asserted that this would be the “beginning of an endless struggle” against the Central and State governments. Hundreds of protesters were detained across Tiruppur district and were later released, police sources said.