As many as 1,769 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadre and leaders were arrested by the city police for staging demonstrations in 87 places in the Coimbatore Corporation limits on Thursday, to condemn the local body for the delay in providing basic amenities to people of the city.
BJP State vice-president Vanathi Srinivasan alleged that the Corporation failed to provide basic amenities such as proper roads, regular drinking water supply and even storm water drains. “There is no transparency in the functioning of the Corporation,” she said and added that mismanagement was the reason for poor administration and functioning of the civic body. “That is why we are not even able to maintain parks,” she said before she was arrested for leading the demonstration at Theppakulam.
“The situation is worse in wards where the ruling party did not fair well in the recent Assembly elections. There are places such as Sukrawarpet and Saibaba Colony where ward councillors have abused the residents who approached them with grievances. The ruling party councillors openly claim poor turnout for the party in those areas (despite their victory) as reason for development works not carried out there,” she alleged.
Party’s city president C.R. Nandhakumar, who led the protest at Uppilipalayam, said that the common demands and allegations across the city were delay in drinking water supply at a frequency of once in 15 to 20 days, poor quality of roads at places that were dug for the underground drainage and in re-laying roads and need for more flyovers and foot over bridges at more than a dozen places.
Other leaders who were arrested for staging protests were Coir Board Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan and BJP State secretary G.K. Selvakumar. All the arrested persons were released in the evening.
