LPG cap: CPM organises 'fire chain' cooking protest along highway in Kerala

In a novel mode of protest against price rise and LPG subsidy cut, thousands of CPI(M) workers, sympathisers and their family members in Kerala on Saturday cooked food on highway sides in the entire stretch of the state to "symbolically express their anguish" at the anti-people policies of the central and state governments. Termed as "fire chain" protest, party leaders and workers, a majority of them women, set up brick hearths along the highways in the evening and cooked food on pots fired by logs and twigs. The party described the campaign as a symbolic way of conveying the anger of the common man against the policies of the Centre, including the cut in subsidised LPG and failure to rein in runaway inflation.

The CPI-M in Kerala Saturday staged a protest against the central government's decision to cap the number of subsidized LPG cylinders by cooking food at various points along highways in the state. The Communist Party of India-Marxist activists set up about 7.75 lakh temporary ovens on the highways and women were asked to join the 775-km-long 'fire chain' protest in all the districts of the state. Participating in the protest were wives of leader of opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and state secretary of Kerala CPI-M Pinarayi Vijayan, who cooked rice and tapioca in temporary ovens set up in the heart of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Vijayan launched the protest at 4.30 p.m. He was later joined by Achuthanandan.

"Generally it's the males in our party who take to the streets. But the restriction of six LPG cylinders and the price rise is affecting women in every family," said Pinarayi Vijayan's wife Kamala Vijayan. The cooked food was later distributed among all those present. CPI-M politburo member M.A. Baby and his wife Betty Baby also joined the protest. In Manjeswaram town of Kasargode district that borders Karnataka, CPI-M's district secretary K.P. Satish Chandran led the protesters, while in Kalyikavilla that borders Tamil Nadu, CPI-M state committee member A. Nagappan led the protest.