September 16, 2016
Response to the dawn-to-dusk bandh called for by the farmers and traders bodies, to protest against the attacks on Tamils in Karnataka following the Cauvery orders by the Supreme Court, was total, with almost all the shops, business establishments, and transport vehicles staying off the road.
Senior leaders of various political parties, including the DMK and farmers’ associations, were arrested while attempting to stage rail roko near railway stations and road blockade, police said. Almost all the shops, hotels and vegetable markets were closed in the main towns of Coimbatore district like Mettupalayam and Annur, crippling normal life, in the district, and the nearby Tirupur and Nilgiris districts.
Barring government buses, almost all private buses, auto rickshaws and taxies remained off the roads. About 20,000 SME units in and around Coimbatore city and over 30,000 garment factories in Tirupur also extended support to the bandh and downed their shutters.
DMK MLA, N. Karthik and 500 party workers, led by Muthusamy, were arrested while attempting to stage rail roko at Peelamedu and North Coimbatore Railway Stations respectively.
More than 30 industrial organisations and trade unions had extended their support to the bandh, even as the workers belonging to LPF, DMK’s trade union wing, refused to unload 2,600 tons of wheat that arrived from Madhya Pradesh by goods train at North Coimbatore Railway Station.
There were stray reports of attacks on vehicles, with an autorickshaw, belonging to a particular union, coming under attack at Puliyakulam. The passengers in the rickshaw were asked to alight, after which the autorickshaw was attacked.
While private schools, particularly Matriculation schools, declared holiday, other schools, Government schools, and private colleges functioned as usual.
The bandh was successful in Nilgiris district too, with almost all the shops remaining closed.
A large number of police have been deployed all over the state to protect the establishments belonging to the Central Government and Karnataka.