Neduvasal youth begin stir, elders say wait

On Saturday, a consultative meeting was organised at Neduvasal to get the opinion of residents of all villages adjacent to the district over the protest against the hydrocarbon project. The meeting was held in the presence of former legislators S Swaminathan, T Pushparaj and S Rajasekaran. Over 1,000 residents of Neduvasal and 100 adjacent villages participated and put forth their views. Interestingly, all of them wanted the protests to resume from a single location. Protest coordinators later decided to resume the protest after the Tamil New year (April 14) and make it bigger than the previous one.

However, on Wednesday, a section of the youth gathered at the protest venue in Neduvasal and started shouting slogans. This, however, created confusion among the elders and so they approached the agitating youth and asked them to withdraw the protest. 

Meanwhile, on receiving information, media persons rushed to the spot and the elders appealed to them not to entertain the protest which would be called off shortly. But the protesters refused to wind up and this prompted the elders to hold a discussion with them regarding their future plan and the group then withdrew. The police had also rushed to the spot.