Normal life in Tamil Nadu was hit on Tuesday by a shutdown called by opposition parties to press for immediate resolution of the problems faced by the state's drought-hit farmers.
According to the Hindu, in an all-party meeting convened by the DMK on April 17, party supremo M K Stalin had said, "To express our solidarity with the farmers and urge the Centre and the State to take immediate action on farmers' issues, we have made a decision to observe a State-wide one-day general strike".
Senior DMK leader and former Union Minister T R Baalu was among those who took part in the agitation in Tiruvarur.
In a conjoined effort to back the farmers of Tamil Nadu, 4.5 lakh lorries carrying essential items like vegetables, raw material for construction and iron will remain off roads.
He said the state government had taken all steps to address the farmers' grievances, including adequate relief.
Police personnel have been deployed in large numbers at key locations across the state.
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With the Tamil Nadu farmers ending their 41-day protest at Jantar Mantar on April 23 for about a month after meeting chief minister Palaniswami, the rationale behind the DMK's going ahead with its statewide bandh today over the issue was unclear.
G Ramakrishnan, Mutharasan, Thirumavalavan, and M Subramanian were also detained by the Chennai Police.
However, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the bandh call as being politically motivated. Associations of local vegetable markets, grocery shops and several auto driver unions also chose to back the bandh, PTI reported.
Back in Thirvarur, Stalin took potshots against the chief minister, claiming that EPS had become inaccessible just like Jayalalitha and was not anxious about the farmers of the state reeling under drought and the drinking water crisis the state was likely to face in the near future.
In Tiruvarur farmers were protesting on the railway tracks. The markets remained shut and even while petrol pumps were open, in many of these the workers wore black bands in support of the strike.
According to reports reaching here, shops in Puducherry were shutdown.
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