Activists protest against DMK digging up pavement for flags

Chennai: Public and social activists raised alarm at the digging up of long stretches of pavement between Koyambedu and Ega Theatre on EVR Salai (Poonamallee High Road) for erecting hundreds of DMK flags and several LED hoardings for a party meeting on Saturday. Following the outcry, particularly on the social media, the DMK got its contractors to quickly pull out the flags and hoardings and begin the pavement repairs on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

People complained that the flags and hoardings had damaged the newly built granite footpath laid after the Chennai Metro Rail construction, besides obstructing traffic and posing danger to the pedestrians.

“The rulers are quite clear that banners can be put up only parallel to the footpath and not across, and there should be at least 10 metres gap between them. Also, they should not be at road junctions. But these political parties do not follow any of these rules, nor does the City Corporation takes them to task despite our filing complaints multiple times”, Arappor Iyakkam convener Jayaram Venkatesan told DC. He was the first to raise the alarm on his twitter handle, ‘Our Platform Our Right@Arappor’, posting his protest on Saturday night.

“The remedy lies with us public; we must protest. We did that a little over two years ago when the DMK had put up similar banners and flags on the TTK Road and at once, Mr Karunanidhi passed order telling the cadre not to do such things. Later, Jayalalithaa too followed suit and the city was free of such banners and flags on dug up roads. Now they are back, it appears; so the public must react because these constitute contempt of court as the court have banned them”, said Jayaram.Fortunately, though belatedly, DMK city secretary J. Anbazhagan responded to the Arappor protest-there were some other angry public tweets as well-getting the party contractors to remove the banners and promising to get the damaged pavements repaired at the earliest opportunity.