KOCHI: Road and rail traffic bottlenecks in the city reached new extremes on Wednesday when over 50,000 protestors from Kudumbi community spilled on to the busy High Court Junction and marched towards the North Railway station. The members of Kerala Kudumbi Federation took to the streets against the government’s decison on not including Kudumbis in the Scheduled Caste list. Traffic on Banerjee Road came to a virtual standstill for over three hours as the irate protestors rallied to the North Railway station from the High Court Junction. Train movement was thrown out of gear as the mob squatted on the railway tracks and blocked ‘Parasuram Express’. The train was delayed by more than half an hour. The mob turned violent as the police used force to remove them. In the melee, two railway officials were injured. Several people, including women and children, also suffered injuries as the police did not spare anyone. Some of the children were immediately taken to the hospital and given medical aid. The police have charged a case for disturbing peace in the city. The cops charging at the mob also turned against news photographers and threatened to break their cameras. Traffic snarls were felt on Banerjee Road, Marine Drive Road and MG Road. Even though over 200 police officials were allotted to man the traffic, they remained helpless. Some of the commuters got out of the car and preferred to walk to reach their offices. P V Mahesh, state general secretary of Kudumbi Yuvajana Sangam said that Kudumbis have been raising their demand to include them in the Scheduled Caste list for the past 62 years. But the political parties kept mum. “Recently two more castes were included in the SC list but they have not taken any decision on our issue,” Mahesh said. “We are basically an agricultural community in farming in swampy areas. It was in search of ‘Pokkali’ farming, that the community reached coastal areas like Vypeen. Our community members are financially backward. Since we have no MLAs and MPs as our representatives, our demand was always overlooked,”Mahesh said. Kerala Kudumbi Federation members threatened to conduct more such protest rallies if the government does not take any decision in this regard. The protest will be extended to all parts of the city, they said.
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