Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Member of Parliament Ganeshamurthy and Communist Party of India member of Legislative Assembly M Arumugam were arrested on Sunday along with 1,000 workers of different parties when they tried to cross to Kerala to stage a demonstration to protest that government's move to build a dam across Bhavani river in Chittoor.
The protestors, barring those from the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam contended that the move would deprive farmers of Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur districts of water for irrigation.
As permission was denied for the fast, they decided to stage a demonstration at Agali in Kerala and nearly 1,500 party workers assembled in Anaikatty on Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, the police said.
All of them were arrested as they attempted to cross over to Kerala and reached the barricade put up on the border. About 300 police personnel from Tamil Nadu and 200 from Kerala had been deployed on either side of the border to prevent any eventualities.
Former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam minister Pongalur N Palanisamy, Ganeshamurthy, Arumugam, Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhakam general secretary, K Ramkrishnan and other party and farmers' association leaders addressed the gathering.
A tense situation prevailed in the area for nearly four hours, following the demonstration.
