The Hindu Business Line : Opposition agrees to curb agitations before Secretariat

CHAOS GALORE: It takes hardly 50 protestors to bring traffic to a halt on MG Road in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. A small procession by students blocked one side of the road for more than an hour on Monday while the other side was jammed with vehicles. - S. Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram , Aug. 9

THE Opposition parties in the State have agreed to cooperate with the Government to impose curbs on agitations and demonstrations in front of the Secretariat as directed by the Kerala High Court.

At an all-party meeting here on Tuesday, the parties, however, rejected the proposal put up by the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, to shift the venue of agitations from the Secretariat area to a location where there would not be any obstruction to traffic.

The Opposition parties felt that any move to change the venue would be an infringement on the people's right to air their grievances and register their protest in public.

The Chief Minister later said that the Government would not enforce any ban on agitations in front of the Secretariat without evolving a consensus on it.

The all-party meeting was convened to discuss the issues arising out of the High Court's move to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the City Police Commissioner for non-compliance with its directives to impose curbs on demonstrations in front of the Secretariat.

The court had issued the directives in a judgement in 1997 and reiterated the same in another judgement in 2004.

At the meeting, the Government offered to identify a location acceptable to all to hold demonstrations and agitations as was the case in Delhi and Kolkotta.

The Chief Minister said that the Government did not want to curb the right of the people to organise agitations. All that it wanted was to ensure that such demonstrations did not infringe on the rights of other sections of the people.

The Chief Minister said that the meeting resolved not to allow permanent sheds in front of the Secretariat and allow putting up of sheds only for specific periods of fasts and other similar protest programmes.

All the political parties also agreed to inform the police about their agitational programmes in front of the Secretariat three days in advance.

It was also agreed at the meeting that demonstrations would be held in such a way that they did not obstruct the flow of traffic. The marchers would occupy only one half of the road and the other half would be left open for traffic.

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