Despite the fact that entire police constabulary from all the police stations across the district restrained themselves from their scheduled strike at the eleventh hour, the civil society organisations and individuals who had announced their active support to the agitation did come out and staged demonstrations to show their commitment.
In the district headquarters, over 50 activists associated with different organisations staged a flash protest at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Circle. After paying floral tributes to the Ambekar statue, the activists, led by R. Manasayya, leader of Trade Union Centre of India, Kumar Samatala, State convenor of Karnataka Janashakti, Ashok Kumar Jain, district president of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, J.B. Raju, a leader of Dalita Sangharsha Samithi and others, began to raise slogans against the State government for “neglecting police constables’ just demands” and covertly and overtly attempting to suppress the police constables’ struggle. Another team of activists staged a similar demonstration at Basaveshwara Circle. In Sindhanur, activists associated with Revolutionary Youth Federation, staged a demonstration outside Tahashildar's office supporting the police constables’ cause. The police immediately rushed to the spot and taken all the agitators into their custody and later released them.
ESMA invoked
The police arrested 18 agitators from Ambedkar Circle and another 15 people from Basaveshwara Circle immediately and later booked them under Section 5 of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). “Besides these couple of incidents, everything is normal. All the 27 police stations are functioning as usual,” Chetan Singh Rathor, Superintendent of Police, told The Hindu .
100 per cent attendance
As per the sources in the Police department, almost all the police stations and offices of higher-level cops including that of Superintendent of Police, witnessed 100 per cent attendance on Saturday. In some rare cases, those who had gone on long leave much earlier for their personal reasons too had returned for duty for a day.
“In my limits, an Assistant Sub-Inspector had gone on a month-long leave 15 days ago. He reported for duty today to show his disapproval of the agitation. He will again go on leave tomorrow on to complete his sanctioned leave,” Suresh H. Talawar, Circle Inspector, Yeragera, said.
Protests by families
Though the police constables kept themselves away from the strike, their family members staged a peaceful demonstration at their locality. They submitted a memorandum with a list of demands to Superintendent of Police Chetan Singh Rathor who visited them in their locality. Mr. Rathor convinced the agitators by explaining the commitment shown by the State government to address the issues raised by constables.
