Tamil Nadu CPI(ML) State committee member, Com. SK Balasubramanian (District secretary of Coimbatore), Comrades NK Natarajan, Dhamodaran, Venkatachalam and AICCTU state secretary Jayaprakash Narayanan and 31 other activists were arrested in Coimbatore while proceeding towards Salem in a yatra demanding scrapping of the 8-lane Green Expressway project. The project will destroy the forests and rob the farmers of their land. There already exist 3 highways connecting Chennai to Salem. While taking out the yatra, comrades raised the slogan of “Save Agriculture, Save Democracy”. The CPI(ML) leaders had also been arrested earlier in July for releasing a booklet explaining the issues around the Chennai-Salem Expressway. CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya strongly condemned the arrest and demanded immediate and unconditional release of all comrades.
