Thiruvananthapuram: The Youth Congress march to protest alleged nepotism in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation in the wake of the appointment letter row turned violent on Thursday afternoon.
As the protesters started pelting stones, police used water cannons and tear gas for about 15 minutes to disperse the activists, but they did not retreat.
Some cops and media persons were injured during the clash. Manorama driver Vibin suffered injuries on his head.
On Wednesday too, cops had booked 10 Mahila Congress activists under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act for allegedly damaging the iron grills of the Corporation office compound.
The Corporation premises have been witnessing tense stand-off for the past few days, after a letter purportedly written by Mayor Arya Rajendran to CPM district secretary Anavoor Nagappan seeking a priority list of candidates to be appointed in temporary vacancies in the civic body emerged.
The BJP had also staged protest against the Mayor in the past days. However, the Mayor made it clear that she will not resign from her post as long as she had the Councillors' backing.
Ever since the letter was released in public domain, both the BJP and Congress have been demanding her resignation. The opposition councillors and party workers also staged protests at the Corporation office.
Arya has right from the beginning denied that she wrote, signed or sent any such letter and claimed that it appeared to be "edited".
She has also said that she suspects it to be politically motivated and also brushed aside demands for her resignation by the opposition Congress and BJP.
