Even as Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy, which is spearheading the protest here, offered unconditional talks with the Central and state governments, around 250 people were arrested on Sunday in Tuticorin after being stopped from heading towards agitators here who, in a fresh form of protest against loading of fuel in the plant, buried themselves upto waist in beach sand. Leader of the agitation Udayakumar, for whom the police have launched a search, told reporters over phone from an undisclosed location that he was open to unconditional talks with the Central and state governments. Udayakumar, who has been in hiding since last week after the year-long protest turned violent, said that they were ready to give up the agitation if the government assured that fuel would not be filled for now. The PMANE leader alleged that the expert committees formed by the state and Central governments to address the safety concerns of the protesters neither held any discussions with the people nor heard their views. Meanwhile, around 250 members of smaller parties were arrested in Tuticorin, about 50 km from here, when they attempted to set out on a march to Idinthakarai to express solidarity with the anti-KNPP protesters. Actor-director Seeman, heading the ‘Naam Tamizhar Iyakkam’, Periyar Dravida Kazhagam leader Kolathur Mani and workers of Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam were among those arrested, the police said. They were released later. A ‘solidarity march’ by 100 cultural leaders from Kerala to Koodankulam to express support with the anti-nuclear activists here was stopped at Kaliyakavila on the state’s border with Tamil Nadu. The march, inaugurated by poet and environmental activist Sugathakumari at Parasalla, was stopped when it reached Kaliyakavila, a Thiruvananthapuram report quoting the police said. After ‘jal satyagraha’, the protesters, including women, shifted their stir from sea to beach and buried themselves upto waist nearby Kootapuli, holding placards against the Centre and state governments. Earlier, taking a cue from a similar protest demanding land as compensation and reduction in water level of Omkareshwar Dam recently by villagers of Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh, the protesters under PMANE had launched the ‘jal satyagraha’, forming human chain in sea waters from September 13. However, it was suspended for two days on Saturday.