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Mani begs outside Coimbatore district collectorate’s office
A social activist was on Thursday arrested for seeking alms in front of the district collectorate here to mark his protest against the state government’s failure to distribute free school bags and shoes to government students.
Activist K Manivannan alias Periyar Mani, 32, of Immidipalayam near Kinathukadvu, sought alms from bus passengers and coconut sellers, among others, in front of the district collectorate and later sat with beggars, for which he was arrested on Thursday.
The whole purpose of the staged act was to symbolically say that the government has run short of money (to spend for government schoolchildren), told Mani.
"Most of the village students study in government schools. Last year too the state government didn't distribute free school bags, shoes and other freebies to the students. Then I had conducted various protests, following which the district administration promised to do the needful. But, the students were not given any freebies," Mani said.
A month has passed since the beginning of the current academic year, and the students were yet to get free bags, slippers and note books from the government.
Mani added "The education department might be running short of funds, making it difficult for officials to distribute freebies. So, I begged money from people to send it to the government to distribute freebies to government school students."
Before his arrest, Mani collected 304 in alms and according to him, he wanted to send the amount to the education department through the district administration. As soon as they got the information, a team of police rushed to the spot, where Mani was taken to the Race Course police station forcibly.
The social activist was booked under Section 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and Section 505(i)(b) (punishment for functioning against government) of the IPC.
Image courtesy: http://coimbatore.nic.in/images/slide4.jpg
