A resolution adopted at a meeting of the DMK and its allies, including the Congress, the PMK and the two left parties, said the bundh was also to show the Centre that the project had people’s support.
The meeting also called on the Centre to arrest former BJP parliamentarian Ram Vilas Vedanti for holding a death threat to DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi over his remarks against Lord Ram.
Talking to reporters later, Mr Karunanidhi said though the DMK was part of the UPA government at the Centre and the Shipping Ministry, which is in charge of the project, is in the hands of its senior leader T R Baalu, the bundh had been called to make the Centre disregard the opposition from communal forces which had been putting spokes in the wheel.
BJP demands
Meanwhile, the state unit of the BJP on Monday demanded a CBI enquiry into Sunday’s attack on the party office here by DMK men and the dismissal of the  Karunanidhi government on the ground that the series of violent events had proved that it had no right to continue in power.
The BJP leaders led by State president L Ganesan and former Minister S Thirunavukarasar met TN Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and submitted a memorandum, seeking the removal of the Government. The two told reporters  that the party planned to move the High Court for a CBI probe into the attacks on the party office in Chennai.