Thousands of people in Chennai are marching to the Secretariat at Fort St. George on Wednesday demanding the Tamil Nadu Assembly to pass a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens, and National Population Register.
The protesters took out the march despite Madras High Court’s interim order denying permission for protests. A bench of Justices M Sathyanaraya and R Hemalatha had passed the order on a PIL seeking direction to the police to restrain the protesters from holding the rally. The next hearing is on March 11.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police A K Viswanathan confirmed that thousands of police personnel are deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incidents. The CoP earlier said protesters would be detained as the HC had denied permission for the march.
DMK, the main opposition party, had earlier attempted to move an anti-CAA resolution in the House. However, it was disallowed by Speaker P Dhanapal saying the matter was a sub-judice, with multiple petitions challenging the amended act in the Supreme Court.
The protest comes after DMK lashed out at the police and the ruling BJP ally AIADMK, on Saturday for using force to clear out protesters opposing the controversial CAA last week, demanding action against policemen involved.