Date:01/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/01/stories/2008010153700300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Salem

More than 2,000 throng Collectorate

Staff Reporter

Part of crowd rushes towards chamber

Photo: P. Goutham

The rush: A large number of people thronged the Salem Collectorate on Monday to submit petitions seeking free house sites. —

SALEM: More than 2,000 people, including a large number of women, thronged the Collectorate complex on Monday to submit petitions seeking free house sites. People waited in serpentine queues to submit petitions to the officials. A part of the crowd rushed towards the Collector’s chamber blocking the way to several offices.

Police personnel found it hard to regulate the crowd. Tension prevailed for a short period, when a few people demanded the officials to provide acknowledgment for the receipt of the petitions.

Police personnel along with revenue officials received the petitions.

Earlier, they staged a demonstration in front of the Collectorate under the banner of Communist Party of India (Marxist) urging the district administration to initiate immediate steps to provide free house sites to the poor.