‘Do not use loudspeakers at demonstration venue’

Political parties unhappy over police announcement

To avoid disturbance:A police notice about the ban on use of loudspeakers during demonstrations held in front of the Red Cross Society building in the city.- Photo: K.Ananthan

City Police have erected a notice board near the Red Cross Building announcing restrictions on those organising demonstrations or agitation there, on the use of loudspeakers.

Police sources said that the board had been put up after considering the disturbance caused to education institutions and government offices in the vicinity. Moreover, the police said that they had also recently received a letter from the Combined Court (opposite the agitation venue) that using loudspeakers during protests had affected court proceedings.

This announcement has irked political parties and organisations that organised protests at the only venue for organising demonstrations in the city.

“After the serial bomb blasts that rocked the city in 1998, the City Police convened a meeting for representatives of political parties and organisations. At the meeting, it was decided that permission would be granted for organising protests only near Red Cross Building and Hotel Tamilnadu near the Central Bus Stand,” District Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) V. Ramamoorthi said.

No permission is given to stage demonstrations in front of Hotel Tamilnadu after the construction of the overbridge began.

“It is shocking that the only other venue for us to stage demonstrations has also not allowed us to use loudspeakers,” he said and reiterated the party’s demand for granting permission to stage demonstrations in other places across the city.

Stating that tension that prevailed during the bomb blast period was over and that the boundaries of the city have also expanded, he said that police should grant permission to organise demonstrations in the places where permission was granted for organising public meetings.

“This would benefit the people,” he added.

The city police have suggested that temporarily, persons organising protests could consider organising the agitation closer to the Race Course police station – as it is near Red Cross Building but a little away from the court – or use megaphones.

The police also said that they were considering suggestions by organisations on identifying more places in the city to organise protests.