Tamil Nadu: Gandhians re-enact salt yatra in Vedaranyam

TIRUCHY: Around 50 Gandhians, social activists and Congress members paid floral tributes on Tuesday at the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha memorial and the Mahatma Gandhi statue near the junction railway station, marking the 96th anniversary of the historic salt march. They raised patriotic slogans and flagged off a commemorative yatra to Vedaranyam.

The march, led by Sakthi Selvaganapathi, president of the Heirs of Freedom Fighters and Salt Satyagraha Committee, will reach Vedaranyam on April 29. Participants will observe a fast before symbolically picking salt on April 30 to commemorate the protest.

The annual re-enactment recalls the 1930 Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha led by C Rajagopalachari, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, who marched from Tiruchy to the Vedaranyam salt pans in defiance of British salt tax laws. The march, inspired by Gandhi’s Dandi Salt March, began on April 28, 1930, and concluded on April 30.

Gandhians from across the State participate in the yatra every year to honour the historic act of civil disobedience against colonial rule.