Thanjavur: At least 70 activists of the Tamil Nadu Mukkulathu Puligal organisation were arrested for staging a slogan-shouting demonstration, pressing a charter of demands, in front of the Thanjavur railway junction in, without obtaining due permission from police.

Led by the outfit’s founder president A Saravanan, the agitators urged the state government to lift the ban imposed on people under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code prohibiting an assembly of four persons in Ramanathapuram district on the occasion of the observance of ‘puli thevar’ and ‘maruthupandiar guru pujas’ and ‘thevar jayanthi’.

They also urged the Centre and state governments to declare a holidays on the occasion of the pujas and to operate special buses to the venue from neighbouring districts.

They also demanded that the Madurai Airport should be named after Pasumpon U Muthuramalingam Thevar and that a statue of Rajaraja Chola be installed inside the Big Temple in Thanjavur.

Police arrested all members for demonstrating without permission.