[1]The protests against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tirunelveli district in the state spilled over to Chennai with members of various parties and outfits staging agitations and courting arrests. The blockade threw traffic out of gear for sometime.
About 500 members including VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, party members and fishermen were arrested from various parts of the city for staging road blockade. The police had to physically remove the agitators who squatted on the road from the spot as they resisted the removal. All the arrested were all later let off.
Police sources said during one of the protests, agitators pelted stones and damaged the windowpanes of two Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses in the city.
Earlier, the protesters raised slogans denouncing the Centre and opposed the loading of uranium fuel at the nuclear plant. They also condemned Monday’s police firing in Tuticorin district, which left a fisherman dead.
VCK founder and Lok Sabha MP Thol Thirumavalavan, and MDMK leader Mallai Sathya and Kolathur Mani of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam were among those arrested for staging road blocks in Koyambedu market and Triplicane.
Fringe outfits like MMK and others staged road roko at several places like Lighthouse, Pallavaram and Vepery.
The anti-nuclear protests took a violent turn on Monday with protesters clashing with police leading to lathi-charge and firing of tear-gas shells by police at Idinthakarai in Tirunelveli district and firing at Tuticorin.
Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa had appealed for calm and sou-ght cooperation from people.
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