Karnataka bandh today: Mixed response to shutdown call; KSRTC, BMTC operate bus services as usual

Bengaluru: The Karnataka bandh called by pro-Kannada organisations on Monday (June 12, 2017) to press for their charter of demands received a mixed response in the state.

Government and private schools, colleges, hotels and business establishments remained open while a few cinema halls cancelled the morning show in Bengaluru.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) operated bus services as usual.

The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) operated metro services.

In a bid to avert any untoward incident, police, however, intensified security at bus and metro stations in the city.

There was no bandh effect in Gulbarga and across Mandya and Ramanagaram. Offices, schools and colleges are running smoothly across the districts. The Hindu reported that lukewarm response for bandh was reported in Shivamogga district. Normal life was not affected in Mysuru due to the shutdown call.

Earlier today, tyres were burnt in Anekal in Bangalore Urban district. Also, stone pelting affected KSRTC services in Kolar and Chikkaballapur in south Karnataka. The agitators stopped the car in which former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Late Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao's grandson Tarak was travelling to Bengaluru.

His vehicle was stopped at Srinivaspura circle in Kolar district for a few minutes. The agitators let him continue his journey after a few minutes.

The dawn-to-dusk shutdown was near total in Hubballi and Nargund in north Karnataka. The agitators formed a human chain preventing North-Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation buses from plying.

The agitators attempted to take out a rally from the Town Hall to the Karnataka Assembly but police bundled them into BMTC buses and took them to an undisclosed destination.

The agitators wanted to lay siege to the Assembly in support of their demands.

Due to Karnataka bandh, Visvesvaraya Technological University has postponed its seventh semester examination. The Bangalore University has postponed its fourth semester postgraduate exams. The new dates for the exams are yet to be announced. Exams conducted by the Karnataka State Secondary Education Examinations Board for D Ed/D.EI and others have also been postponed to June 13.

"We want the government to waive off farm loans and supply water to Kolar and Chikballapur districts. Our agitation will continue till the government meets our demands,'' Karnataka Rakshana Vedike president Praveen Shetty told reporters here.

The shutdown call was given by the Federation of Kannada Associations, or 'Kannada Okoota'.

Their charter of demands among others include farm loan waiver, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in the Mahadayi river water dispute, a permanent solution to the problem of water scarcity in arid areas, and exile of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) activists from the state for their alleged 'anti Kannada' activities in Belagavi.

Vatal Nagaraj, who heads Kannada Okoota, said in a statement that the bandh is also against Tamil Nadu's opposition to the Mekedatu project across the river Cauvery and proposal to privatise BEML.

The Karnataka government has locked horns with the neighbouring Goa on the larger issue of sharing the Mahadayi River water between both the states.

The Kalasa-Banduri project is being undertaken by Karnataka to improve drinking water supply in the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and the districts of Belagavi and Gadag.

The Mahadayi tribunal has asked the states to resolve the issue out of court settlement through negotiations, with or without third party intervention.

(With Agency inputs)