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Wednesday 17 August 2011

Ahmedabad rallies behind Anna


Parts of the city nearly came to a standstill on Tuesday morning after Anna Hazare's early morning arrest in New Delhi. Rallies, peace march, candlelight vigils, chakka-jaam, daylong fasts and relay fasts, et al were organised by many activists and supporting groups across the state on Tuesday.

Traffic moved at a snail's pace on the city's arterial Ashram Road all through the day. RTI activists gathered from across the state at Income-Tax circle. Besides activists, supporting and using the Right to Information Act (RTI), there were also many youngsters present at the crossroads in support of Anna.

There were also professionals who had pulled their shutters just to raise their voice against corruption.

However, amongst them were a few youngsters who seemed to have taken to the streets merely to grab media attention.

Everyone was seen chanting slogans and wearing a black ribbon on the forehead that read 'I Support Anna Hazare'.

A huge makeshift board had been put up inviting passers by to stop and put their signature showing their support for Anna.

Members of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Lok Andolan Gujarat convened a meeting at Narmad Meghani Library in the morning to plan the programmes to sustain the protest.

Prakasha N Shah, veteran journalist and member of Lok Andolan Gujarat said, "We will carry out a series of programs. There will be a protest demonstration at Apana Bazar at 4:30 pm on Tuesday and a public meeting will be held on Wednesday. We are also planning to go on fast in the battle against corruption."

Supporting Anna, former secretary of the state unit of Indian Association of Lawyers, Kamlesh Bhavsar, said, "We had submitted a memorandum to the High Court in 2007 and 2010 about the corruption in the judiciary. There is a nexus between the judges and the members of parliament (MPs), because a committee of MPs can play a decisive role in impeachment of judges. We want the judiciary to be covered under the Lokpal Bill to break this nexus."

Naranpura Photographer's Association organised demonstrations at Sardar Patel crossroads. They gathered around Sardar Patel statue crossroads at Naranpura to form a circle around it - blocking traffic and chanting the slogan 'Anna tum aage badho, hum tumhare saath hai'.

The group claimed they are not affiliated to any activists.

An individual citizen Raajat Jain, an event planner, organised a peace walk from Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) to Vastrapur Lake.

He said, "My movement here may not help the national level movement. Hence, our march from AMA to Vastrapur Lake will be shot on video. This short film will then be uploaded on various video and social networking websites to gather more youth support for the movement against corruption."

Members of ABVP and Youth against Corruption (YAC), gathered outside town hall to support the nationwide movement against corruption.

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