Date:18/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081851090300.htm

Tamil Nadu

CPI (M) flays Rettanai police attack

Special Correspondent

VILLUPURAM: Central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) C. Ramakrishnan has condemned the police attack at Rettanai near Tindivanam, calling it “unwarranted excess.”

After visiting Rettanai, where the police lathicharged and teargassed those obstructing road traffic on Saturday, Mr. Ramakrishnan told presspersons that the police had unleashed violence on innocent people.

The protestors were merely asserting their democratic rights in demanding full wages for a day’s work, but the authorities were not ready to oblige. Those working on hard soil had to toil a great deal, though the output could not be compared to those working on comparatively easy surface, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

The hard work put in by the workers should not be belittled by underpayment, he said.

To seek justice for those affected, the CPI (M) had put forth five demands:

The government should pay adequate compensation to the injured; action should be taken against the tahsildar and police officers who were behind the attack; false cases foisted on the people should be withdrawn; police force should be withdrawn from Rettanai; and uniform wages of Rs 80 should be given for the day’s work.

Mr. Ramakrishnan said he also informed Union Minister of State for Law K.Venkatapathi, who visited the place of the demands.

The Minister had promised to take it up with Chief Minister M. Karuananidhi.

Mr. Ramakrishnan also alleged that the police seemed to have become “intolerable” even to mild form of protests. When CITU leaders were holding talks with the management of Pioneer Chemicals Ltd on the SIPCOT Industrial Estate, the police had chased away the trade unions and attacked even women.