TIRUNELVELI
Cadre of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam paid floral tributes to the portraits of former Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi across the district on Wednesday.
MDMK cadre, led by Tirunelveli City district secretary of the party K.M.A. Nizam and rural district secretary T.M. Rajendran offered floral tribute to the decorated portrait of Karunanidhi opposite Passport Seva Kendra on the South Bypass Road.
Led by former councillor Sarojini of ward 21 of Tirunelveli Corporation, a group of DMK cadres garlanded the portrait of Karunanidhi.
After special prayers, a group of Christians, holding burning candles in their hands, paid homage to the departed leader at Sacred Heart Church at Udaiyaarpatti on the North Bypass Road.
Some of the staunch loyalists of Karunanidhi with red and black shawls were seen with their heads tonsured in a few places including Vannarpet, Kulavanigarpuram and Samathanapuram in Palayamkottai and Tirunelveli Junction.
Led by industrialist R.K. Kalidas, a group of DMK cadres offered floral tributes to the portrait of Karunanidhi and a few of them tonsured their heads.
Five DMK cadres including the deputy organiser of the youth wing Maya tonsured their heads at Kottur in Palayamkottai. A group of DMK cadres along with the traders of Tirunelveli Town took out a silent procession via the Car Streets around Swami Nellaiyappar Temple in Tirunelveli Town.
Another silent procession was taken out in Melapalayam also.
The district paid homage to five-time Chief Minister by closing down all shops and business establishments.
As the news on the demise of Karunanidhi broke on Tuesday evening, most of the shops were closed and bus services stopped completely. The situation continued on Wednesday too. While the DMK flags were lowered to half-mast, flex boards carrying condolence messages with the photograph of the former Chief Minister had been kept at several places to enable the public to pay their homage.
All arterial roads of the district wore a deserted look as trucks, buses and other vehicles were off the road. Consequently, those who had to travel for other places relied upon the trains passing through Tirunelveli.
The vegetable markets at Surandai, Alangulam, Pavoorchathram, Nainarkulam, Thatchanallur and Kavalkinaru remained closed and the vegetable loads that had reached here on Wednesday morning in the lorries were just unloaded and not sent to the retail shops for sale as these shops were closed.
Though all the waterfalls at Courtallam were swelling with heavy flow of water, only small number of visitors had come to the tourist destination in their vehicles and had to content with the snacks and variety rice available in the small eateries while the medium-size hotels remained closed throughout the day. However, most of the shops opened in the evening to serve the tourists.
While cinema halls cancelled the shows during the day, fuel stations across the district started their operation only after 6 p.m.
The Manonmaniam Sundaranar University postponed the counselling for M.Phil. programme and the Registrar S. Santhosh Baboo announced that the date would be announced later.
The most remarkable aspect was that the district, being portrayed as ‘volatile region’, did not witness any violent incident. Though the police had deployed good number of patrol teams along all important thoroughfares, the absence of vehicles on the roads and closure of liquor shops collectively made their job easy.
In neighbouring Kanniyakumari district, no tourist could be seen roaming around at this tourist destination of national importance that would attract a few thousand visitors, especially from north India on any given day.
