Police break up Anti-Reliance march by CPI in Kochi

Kochi, Jul 2 (UNI) A protest march spearheaded by the CPI against a newly opened 'Reliance Fresh' outlet here was broken up by the police today.

Nearly 70 slogan-shouting CPI activists tried to march to the 'Reliance Fresh' outlet at Thevara, the first outlet of Reliance Retail in Kerala which was opened on June 23.

However, police stopped the protestors before they could reach the outlet. As the protestors tried to break the police cordon, they had to be pushed back physically by the police personnel.

No one was reported injured in the incident. Police said no arrests were made.

''The protestors dispersed after about one hour of shouting slogans,'' Thevara police said.

On June 27, traders in Kerala had observed a state-wide strike, supported by the Left Front, against the entry of foreign and domestic retail giants into Kerala.

They had warned of more ''drastic action'' if companies like Reliance did not shut their retail operations in Kerala.

The trade organisations say that the entry of major retail chains would lead to the end of small and medium shops in the state, sounding the death knell for petty businessmen.

Reliance Retail last month had a soft launch of its first batch of shops in Kochi with the opening of three Reliance Fresh outlets.

Kerala CPM legislator Dinesh Mony, a former mayor of Kochi, and his party colleague and Kochi Deputy Mayor C K Mani Shankar in fact got into trouble with the CPM as they had opened the Reliance Retail stores at Thevara and Elamakkara.

Following protests from the traders organisations and other CPM leaders, the two had to issue public apologies for inaugurating the Reliance stores.

UNI