The bandh call given by the Kannada Okkoota to protest against the stand of the Tamil Nadu government on the Mekedatu project evoked a lukewarm response in the region on Saturday.
Normal life was unaffected in Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts with all the government offices, banks and private enterprises functioning normally. The public transport system functioned without any disruption and autorickshaws and other modes of private transport plied normally.
Except for the symbolic demonstration by a few Kannada organisations such as Jaya Karnataka, Veera Kannadigara Sene, Karnataka Rakshna Vedike, and the Bisilu Nadu Hasiru Sene in support of the bandh, there was no semblance of any bandh in these districts. No untoward incident was reported too.
In Bidar, members of the KRV, Jai Karnataka and Kannadigara Balaga took out a rally. They shouted slogans against the Tamil Nadu government and urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to go ahead and complete the drinking water project in Mekedatu. The activists said that the Karnataka government should take decisions that affect its own people and not be bogged down by the objections by neighbouring States.
Bidar police arrested around 20 activists and released them later. Shops, schools and colleges functioned. Offices and shops were open. Buses, autorickshaws and private vehicles plied. It was business as usual in the vegetable market in the old city, the grain market in Gandhi Gunj and the traditional Shah Gunj market as usual.
The bandh did not affect normal life in Raichur as offices, educational institutions, banks, business establishments, shops and public and private transport systems functioned normally. Except a protest demonstration by a handful of activists associated with the KRV, the city remained as peaceful as usual.
“The people, civil-society organisations and elected representatives, and political leaders of south Karnataka never heeded the burning issues of north Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka such as drinking water crisis, irrigation issues, backwardness and others. They always projected the problems of south Karnataka as that of the entire Karnataka. For them, north and Hyderabad Karnataka’s problems have never been the problems of the State. As long as they continue to ignore north and Hyderabad Karnataka, these regions would naturally continue this type of their reciprocal non-cooperation and rejection,” R. Manasaiah, State president Karnataka Raitha Sangha, said.
In Vijayapura too, the bandh did not affect normal life. Activists in the irrigation and agriculture sectors had earlier announced that they would not support the bandh. A few KRV members burnt an effigy of Tamil Nadu at M.G. Circle, but even the number of the activists was no more than a dozen.
