City police arrest temporary workers as a precaution measure before the celebrations. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, March 2: Even as the city gears up for the week-long Founder’s Day celebrations, protests from temporary workers of Telco and Tisco pressing for their demands have threatened to dampen the festive spirit of the city.

Police arrested 22 workers from the Telco and the Jubilee Park areas as a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident tomorrow.

The temporary workers of Tata Steel and Tata Engineering had allegedly planned to protest in support of their demands before top honchos of these companies.

However, police got wind of the news and arrested about eight workers from there immediately. According to police, 15 more temporary workers of Tata Engineering were arrested when they arrived for a meeting with the company.

Meanwhile, the Jubilee Park was bathed in colourful lights as P.K. Kaul director, Tata Steel, pressed the button this evening. Senior officials of the steel major were also present on the occasion.

Visitors, including children and elders, trickled in to look at the tastefully decked up park.

Different outstation and local agencies have been entrusted to illuminate the whole city, including the Jubilee Park.

Tata Steel sources said the lighting has been done in all the departments of the steel major, including town division, town electrical, tubes division, general office, tribal culture centre, zoological park, Nicco Jubilee Park, Centre for Excellence, Sir Dorabji Park and Sidhgora Park.

All the Tata group of industries in the city, including Tata Engineering and Tinplate also illuminated their respective companies.

The cynosure of all eyes was the Jubilee Park. Large lighting boards of different shapes carrying slogans, caught the fancy of the visitors.

People made a beeline for the lake where a model of the famous London bridge has been put up.

“We have tried to be more innovative this time. We have added some new slogans, which is in consonance with our mode of functioning in future. The Eva Plus is one of them,” a company official said.

The newly installed statue of Tata Steel founder JN Tata at the Triangular Park in Bistupur has also been illuminated and large pots of flowers have added colour to this monument.

‘Iceland’ at Nicco Park

Children and elders flocked to “Iceland,” a novel set up at Nicco Park, for the second day, our Jamshedpur correspondent reports.

The children tried their hand at throwing snowballs at each other. “Iceland” was a large tent with paintings depicting snow-capped mountains to add colour to the ambience.