Agitated over the excessive taxes imposed by the state government, Kerala Opposition leader VD Satheesan said here on Tuesday that the ruling LDF is picking pocket of the common man.

Addressing the day and night protest organised by the UDF here, Satheesan said the government, which gives the social security pension with one hand, is tearing the pocket with the other.

“We cannot even call it pick-pocketing. The government, in fact, is tearing the pockets. Now, people are seeing the real face of the state government,” Satheesan said.

The senior Congress leader asserted that the UDF would continue its protest against the government till all the “anti-people taxes and cess” in the state budget are withdrawn.

Meanwhile, former KPCC president K Muralidharan said the common people are bearing the brunt of heightened security for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He said the excessive security provided to the chief minister has created a situation where people are unable to go out.

Police on Monday allegedly threatened Kottayam native S Sarath as he was out to buy medicine for his child at Mattoor, near Kalady near Aluva in Ernakulam .

Twenty-two Youth Congress leaders were placed under preventive custody before the arrival of the chief minister in Palakkad. In Mudappallur, the police took one person into custody from his home while he was getting ready to take his mother, a cancer patient, to a hospital in Kochi for treatment.
Opposition leader VD Satheesan said if the chief minister is afraid of people,let him remain at his residence. Why is he undertaking a journey, putting people in captivity, Satheesan asked . “This is not Stalin’s Russia. This won’t be tolerated in Kerala,” Satheesan said.

Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala  said chief minister Vijayan , who boasted that he walked fearlessly through the drawn sword, is now running in fear of the people of his own state . He alleged that the chief minister is afraid to walk as the people who were struggling  to live due to the sharp rise in prices and the burden of taxes imposed on them.

Meanwhile, The state Human Rights Commission has taken a suo motu cognizance of the incident in which the police sent back a father who had come to buy medicine for his child at Mattoor in Kalady amid the chief minister’s security control.

The chairman of the commission, Justice Antony Dominic, asked the Ernakulam Rural District Police Chief to conduct an investigation and submit a report within four weeks.Human Rights Commission’s action is based on media reports.

In this connection, the Pala First Class Judicial Court Magistrate Court has sought a report on the speeding of the chief minister’s police escort vehicles. The report was sought  from the Kuruvilangad police  regarding the dangerous driving of the police escort vehicle in the Pala Koza area on Friday.