Thursday, February 21, 2019

Bandh call for renaming Madurai airport triggers chaos

Madurai: The bandh call issued by the All India Forward Bloc and various Thevar outfits, demanding that the Madurai International Airport be named after freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar, led to disruption of traffic at the busy Goripalayam junction here, as protesters took to the streets.

A group of agitators blocked the Vaigai Express at Madurai railway junction and delayed its departure for 10 minutes in the morning. Miscreants pelted stones and damaged glasses of two city buses.

Though the city police had put up barricades early in the morning to prevent protesters from proceeding towards the Thevar statue junction, hundreds of protesters managed to gather at the junction.

AIFB leader P.V. Kathiravan and Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam leader G.M. Sridhar Vandayar stayed put on the top rung of the staircase leading to the life-sized statue of Thevar throughout the day even as few hundred protesters gathered at the junction.
Despite the repeated requests of the police to disperse in the interest of patients being rushed to the nearby Government Rajaji hospital in ambulances and to restore traffic on the junction, the agitators refused to budge.

Vehicular traffic was diverted from many parts of the city to bypass Goripalayam junction since 10 a.m. and normal flow was restored only after 5.15 p.m.

A police source said that over 5,000 shops, including those in the Central Vegetable Market and the Fruits Market, stayed shut. Wine shops in the city were closed since Tuesday evening.
21/02/19 The Hindu
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