Farmers stage rallies across TN, plow through barricades

CHENNAI: The farmers’ tractor protest on the streets of the national capital found its echoes across Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. In Delta districts especially, many farmers took out bike and tractor rallies condemning the Centre for its farm laws, even though the police had denied permission for the protests. Rallies were held in Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Karur, Perambalur, Nagapattinam and Coimbatore districts.

In Tiruchy, heeding the call of the All India Farmers’ Protest Coordination Committee-Tamil Nadu, hundreds of farmers and members of trade unions attempted to conduct a bike rally. But it turned into a commotion as the police had rejected their request. 

“The protestors attempted to conduct the rally by breaking the barricades and moving forward. The rally was stopped near the District Court Campus itself,” said a police official. Personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd and traffic was disrupted near the court campus.

Similarly, traffic was affected on the Tiruchy-Chennai Highway as P Ayyakannu, president of Desiya Thennindhiya Nadhigal Inaippu Vivasayigal Sangam, attempted to conduct a tractor rally near the No 1 Toll Gate. In Thanjavur and Tiruvarur, too, farmers breached the barricades put up by police and conducted rallies. 

As farmers gathered in Melavasthachavady near the Thanjavur Collectorate with four tractors, a bullock cart and bikes, police held talks with them. When it failed, the farmers pushed ahead with the protest. As the rally moved 100 metres, a posse of police personnel stopped them, but the barricades were breached after a melee. They were stopped again after covering around 1 km, when protestors tried to push away a police van parked blocking their way.

The protest finally ended at the New Bus Stand. The police, who took away keys of some tractors and two-wheelers, later gave them back. In Tiruvarur, despite police erecting several barricades and even throwing metal barricades on tractors, a rally of 50 tractors moved forward, from Kordacherry to the New Bus Stand and later through the Old Bus Stand and finally to the New Railway Station, covering a distance of around 12 km. Meanwhile, 41 farmers who were involved in a rally were arrested in Ariyalur.

They were kept in a private wedding hall and released in the evening. AITUC members, too, were arrested in the district. In Karur, protestors staged road rokos in various parts of the district condemning police officials for denying them permission for a rally. Hundreds of farmers affiliated to various associations took part in a rally in Coimbatore while as many as 500 members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) staged a protest in the City Town Hall in support of the farmers. In Tirupur, a tractor rally was taken out by groups of farmers against the farm laws. In Namakkal and Salem districts, farmers who tried to organise tractor rallies were arrested.