Bus fare hike: Students stage protests across TN, police resort to lathicharge in Madurai

MADURAI/VELLORE/CHENNAI/ COIMBATORE: College students in different parts of Tamil Nadu staged protests on Tuesday demanding that the state government roll back the hike in bus fares. Police lathicharged students who attempted to block an arterial road in Madurai.
Several students from Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College in Pasumalai, both girls and boys, began their protest around 2.15pm.Within a few minutes, police dispersed them by resorting to lathicharge. A few students sustained minor injuries. Police picked some students.
In Vellore, police detained around 80 students of the Law College who squatted on the Mangalore-Vellore National Highway at Silk Milk bus stop. The police took them to a nearby marriage hall. The protest disturbed the traffic on the road for a while.
Students from the Government Thirumagal Mills College in Gudiyattam also staged a road blockade.
Students of the Muthurangam Government Arts College in Vellore boycotted classes and staged a protest against the bus fare hike. Over 500 students took part in the demonstration on the campus and raised slogans.
Over 1,000 students of Arignar Anna Government Arts College and Government Polytechnic College in Cheyyar in Tiruvannamalai boycotted classes and staged road blockades in front of their colleges.
Government Arts and Science College students staged a protest in Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, DMK working president M K Stalin asked chief minister K Palaniswami to withdraw the hike in bus fares. In a letter to the chief minister, Stalin said people in the economically weaker sections were hit very hard by the hike.
"The steep hike in fares affected people in the lower economic strata very badly. Other sections of society have also been affected by the hike. The government must immediately withdraw the hike."