Coimbatore youth lead 8 km protest to park

Coimbatore: Protests gained momentum on a massive scale in Coimbatore as youngsters thronged in thousands at the VOC Park Grounds on Wednesday demanding to lift the ban on ‘Jallikattu’.

All roads led to the venue of the protest as crowds swelled to over 15,000 by the evening. Students from scores of colleges took off from their classes to participate in the mass protest that is likely to continue through the night.

Thousands of students took a long protest march from Codissia to VOC Park Grounds covering about eight-km by walk on the Avinashi Road in the morning.

The march gathered strength as it passed by umpteen colleges on the arterial road with students joining the protest. A separate two-wheeler rally was also organised on the stretch by the students.

Traffic was blocked on the Avinashi Road from Nava India to the protest venue at the time of the march and diverted through alternative routes. Students, sporting black dresses, kept pouring at the protest venue from other places too by lorries, cars and two- wheelers.

At the VOC Park Grounds, volunteers from social welfare organisations helped the protestors beat hunger pangs by distributing food packets, biscuits and water sachets.

“We distributed over 1,000 water bottles, large number of biscuit packets and food packs to protestors. Priority was given to women and children,” said Vaishnavi Balaji, founder of Food Bank, Coimbatore.

“Politicians have been issuing lame reasons for not conducting ‘Jallikattu’, which has been played since ages and has its deep roots in the Tamil culture and tradition. Our protests will only intensify if we do not get a favourable nod for conducting our ancient sport,” said S Manivasagam, a college student protesting at the VOC Park Grounds.