HC objects to farmer leader's plea for 90-day protest at Marina

The Madras High Court today declined to accede to the prayer of farmer leader P Ayyakannu on observing a 90-days hunger strike at the Marina here for constitution of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

The court also advised him not to resort to naked protests, similar to what he did along with other farmers in the national capital last year.

When the petition by Ayyakannu came up, Justice T Raja asked the petitioner's counsel to inform him not to resort to naked protest, and said permission cannot be given to hold protest for 90 days in a public place like Marina beach.

The judge then directed Ayyakannu's counsel to get instructions from him and inform the court about it by April 13, the exact number of days he proposed to go on fast.

The group led by Ayyakannu had in March last year staged novel protests by holding human skulls outside the prime minister's house in New Delhi, stripping naked outside the president's and drinking urine.

The farmer leader submitted that formation of CMB was a long pending demand of the people of Tamil Nadu.

A Supreme Court order had granted six weeks time to the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute.

The deadline expired on March 29.

Yet, the central government failed to constitute the board, Ayyakannu observed.

Therefore, demanding immediate constitution of CMB, we have planned to observe a hunger strike in Marina, he said