TIRUCHY: Residents of several village panchayats from the Srirangam assembly constituency blocked traffic after they were stopped from marching to the house of Somarasampettai MLA to protest the merger with the city corporation here on Monday. Tension prevailed after a person attempted self-immolation, leading to a scuffle between the police and the residents.

As a part of the city corporation expansion programme, Athavathur and Kumaravayalur panchayats from Somarasampettai in Tiruchy were announced to be merged with the Tiruchy corporation. Despite stiff opposition, the state issued a GO and the residents were up in arms claiming their livelihood would be affected.

As a part of the protests, the residents from Athavathur and Kumaravayalur took out a rally to Srirangam MLA M Palaniyandi’s house at Somarasampettai on Monday morning but were stopped by the police. They then staged a sit-in on the road and police arrested around 500 residents, mostly women.

As a scuffle broke out between the police and the protesters, Lakshmanan, a resident from Athavathur poured kerosene over him and attempted to immolate himself. However, the police rescued him and arrested him.

After Srirangam RDO Srinivasan assured to take up the matter, the villagers called off the protest.