: Normal life was hit in the two districts on Friday as shops downed shutters and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) volunteers staged a road roko agitation in support of jallikattu, resulting in suspension of train services to Rameswaram island.
Responding to the calls given by tradebodies for dawn-to-dusk bandh, shops and commercial establishments downed shutters in the two districts, expressing solidarity with protesting students and jallikattu supporters.
Except a few tea shops, pharmacies and shops selling essentials, almost all shops, including textile and jewellery showrooms remained closed in the two districts. Of the about 15,000 shops in Ramanathapuram district, about 10,000 shops were closed, police reports said. Except in the pilgrim island of Rameswaram, the bandh was total in all the other parts of the district, they said.
Claiming that the bandh was a 100 % success, P. Jagadeesan, president of the Ramanathapuram district chamber of commerce said all the hotels were closed and cinema houses suspended morning and matinee shows. In Sivaganga too, the bandh was total with more than 90 % of shops downing shutters, reports said.
In Rameswaram, fishermen expressed their solidarity with protesting students by staging black flag demonstration after getting into their fishing vessels at the fishing jetty. They also struck work in support of the protesting students, P. Sesu Raja, a fishermen leader said.
Even as the students and jallikattu supporters continued their protest for the fourth day, volunteers of the DMK and Communist Party of India (CPI), led by former DMK Minister K. R. Periyakaruppan and former CPI MLA Gunasekaran detained the Kakinada-Nagercoil Seshadri Express at Sivaganga by squatting on the track and climbing on the locomotive.
As the protesters would not allow the train to proceed and police stood helpless, the Railways made alternative arrangements for the passengers to reach their destinations. Train services remained suspended to Rameswaram throughout Friday. The more than 200 stranded north Indian pilgrims were helped to reach Madurai by road by the BJP district president, K. Muraleedharan. The DMK volunteers who gathered at the Paramakudi Railway station to stage the rail roko stir, waited for more than an hour and dispersed after the train services were suspended.
On Thursday night, local people detained the Rameswaram-Chennai Sethu Express at Paramakudi for more than an hour, before Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan intervened and dispersed them. The protesters pelted stones and damaged the windscreen of the locomotive. No one was injured, police said. The Kanniyakumari express was held up for more than two hours, police said.
