Date:18/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/18/stories/2008121854540600.htm

Tamil Nadu

Bandh call evokes good response from traders

Staff Reporter

— Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

DESERTED LOOK: Shops on Gandhi Road, including silk cooperative society outlets, remained closed on Tuesday in support of the Kancheepuram Bar Association’s demand to shift the District Sessions Court from Chengalpattu to Kancheepuram.

KANCHEEPURAM: The 12-hour bandh call, given by the Joint Action Committee for shifting of the District Sessions Court to Kancheepuram from Chengalpattu, evoked a good response from traders and other businessmen here on Tuesday.

All shops and business establishments, including medical shops, hotels, showrooms of State government-controlled Silk Weavers Cooperative Societies and shops run by women self-help groups, remained closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. while the Union and State government offices and banking institutions carried on their business as usual.

The Joint Action Committee, comprising members from the Kancheepuram Bar Association, the Tamil Nadu Lawyers Association and from the trade and business associations, called for a bandh to press the long-pending demand for shifting the District Sessions Court, District Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, ‘Mahila’ Court and the District Consumer Redressal Forum, hitherto functioning at Chengalpattu, to the district headquarters’ town — Kancheepuram.

The JAC also took out a procession from near the Kancheepuram Taluk Office on Kamarajar Salai to the Collectorate at Thenambakkam. The rally wended its way through Kamarajar Salai, Vallalpachaiyappan Salai, Karukinilamarthaval Koil Street, and Kavalan Gate to reach the Collectorate campus.

Later, a group of lawyers and representatives from trade and business community, led by the JAC chairman and advocate, T.C. Varadharajan, met the District Revenue Officer, A. Nambirajan, and presented a memorandum to him.