The Hindu : Pondy DMK MLAs released on Rangasamy orders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Pondicherry

Pondy DMK MLAs released on Rangasamy orders

By Our Staff Reporter

Pondicherry April 10 . The Pondicherry unit of the DMK resorted to road roko agitation today at several points in and around Pondicherry to condemn the arrest of the former Mayor of the Chennai Corporation and youth wing leader of the party, M. K. Stalin, by the Tamil Nadu government. Around 200 volunteers of the party including legislators were held for picketing traffic.

All the seven DMK legislators, R V Janakiraman, V. M. C. Sivakumar, S. P. Sivakumar, A. M. H. Nazeem, R. Siva, Annibal Kennedy and M. A. S. Subramanian, were among those arrested.

The Speaker, M. D. R. Ramachandran, informed the House of the arrest on preventive grounds under section 151 Cr.P.C.

As soon as the announcement of the arrest was made, the Congress legislators R. Kamalakannan, P.Rajavelu and A. V. Sridharan urged the Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy, to arrange for the immediate release of the DMK members so that they would be in a position to participate in the proceedings of the House.

Mr .Rangasamy said the DMK members would be released immediately.

Within less than an hour, the DMK legislators came to the House and participated in the deliberations.

Mr. Janakiraman thanked the Chief Minister and the Speaker. In a press communication, the general secretary of the Pondicherry-based Dravida Peravai, N. Nandhivarman, charged the Tamil Nadu government with adopting dictatorial steps in the arrest of Mr. Stalin and others.

``The State government had committed a midnight butchery of democracy by arresting Stalin and others'' for expressing solidarity with the agitating students of the Queen Mary's College, he said.

DMK causing confusion: Anbalagan

A. Anbalagan, MLA and State secretary of the AIADMK here, said it was the prerogative of a government to decide as to where a college should be located, a hospital should be established or an Assembly campus should be built.

The DMK in Tamil Nadu was trying to cause chaos and confusion by trying to gain political mileage out of the current issue involving the Queen Mary's College.

The holding of road rokos and other agitations by the DMK was only causing hindrance to the smooth functioning of traffic, he said in a communication.

Mr. Anbalagan said Mr. Stalin should be awarded punishment in such a manner that he would not come out and revive disturbance to the people at large.

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