[1]A rally and protest organised by the Kudumbi Seva Sangham on Wednesday morning halted Kochi city for more than two hours, forcing the police to cane-charge the protestors. The city’s main and pocket roads were still when tens of thousands of Kudumbi members marched from Marine Drive to Ernakul-am North railway station.
It was when the protestors turned violent and stoned the police at the railway station that the police cane-charged the mob. Two personnel from the railway protection force were injured in the stoning. The protest rally and train blockade was staged in a bid to voice their demands to get scheduled caste status.
Since the march was conducted at 10.30 am, even the cars of high court judges were stranded on the roads. The march on the Bannerjee Road resulted in traffic jams on MG Road, Shanmugam Road and Park Avenue Road.
The police had earlier diverted private bus services on the Menaka-High Court stretch. Several buses stopped their services at Kaloor and Pall-imukku, forcing people to get down and walk all the way to their offices. The protestors also blockaded the Mangalore-Thiruvan-anthapuram Parashuram express and the Kannur-Alappuzha express at the North Station.
Meanwhile, Sangham leaders slammed the police for causing the trouble by changing the rally route just before it started.
Sangham’s proposal to the police was to conduct the march from Marine Drive to the railway station via MG Road and Veekshanam Road. The Kudumbi Seva Sangham secretary I.K. Narayanan said police asked them to take the Bannerjee Road-Chittoor Road-Ayyappan Kavu route to reach the railway station.
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