With their hopes of an early solution to the Mahadayi river water dispute getting dashed following the reported lukewarm response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the all-party delegation from Karnataka, farmers from Navalgund and Nargund taluks are up in arms against the State and Union governments. On Tuesday, they ransacked government offices and blocked national highway 218 for the entire day.
While the farmers have decided to intensify their agitation by continuing road blockade indefinitely and launching a relay hunger strike, a call for ‘Dharwad bandh’ has been given for Wednesday by a non-political forum of various organisations, which held a meeting in Hubballi on Tuesday. While the Hubballi-Solapur NH-218 remained blocked from Hubballi to Nargund for the whole day, traffic was blocked on the Ankola-Gooty NH-63 between Hubballi and Gadag till afternoon. So far, four buses have been burnt and over 10 damaged. In Nargund town, the situation went out of control on Tuesday with groups of youths barging into government offices and ransacking infrastructure. Broken chairs and documents strewn all over the office premises welcomed Deputy Commissioner of Gadag N.S. Prasannakumar and Superintendent of Police K.T. Balakrishna when they visited the spot in the afternoon.
The mini Vidhana Soudha in Nargund and a bakery and restaurant at Nargund bus-station were vandalised by protesters, who also targeted the engineering department office of the zilla panchayat, the circuit house and the APMC office. Eye witnesses told The Hindu that the protesters, who split into groups, gave a slip to the police on duty and went on a rampage.
Mr. Prasannakumar and Mr. Balakrishna told presspersons that the situation was under control. In every village on the Navalgund-Nargund route, thorny bushes and electric poles were placed across the road to prevent vehicular movement. Tyres and effigies of Mr. Modi were burnt. At Yamanur, two buses were seen burning in the evening. In a meeting held in the presence of Sri Basavalinga Swami at Gavi Math in Navalgund, several office-bearers of different parties resigned and resolved to continue their fight.
