A Statewide dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday demanding the ouster of Finance Minister K.M. Mani from the Cabinet over the bar-bribery scandal was total and peaceful in the district, barring a few incidents of violence.
Attendance was low in government offices and financial institutions. Only 29 of the 149 employees turned up for duty at the Collectorate here, P.V. Gangadharan, Additional District Magistrate, told The Hindu . The offices of various departments in the district recorded below 10 per cent attendance, he said.
Educational institutions, business establishments, and shops, except medical shops, remained closed.
While private buses and four-wheelers, including taxis, stayed off road, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operated one service to Gudalur in Tamil Nadu from its Sulthan Bathery depot and two services to Sulthan Bathery from its Kozhikode depot with the help of police convoys in the morning, sources said.
Hartal supporters destroyed windowpanes of a private car headed for Bangalore from here at Sulthan Bathery in the morning, Putta Vimaladitya, district police chief, said.
A long queue of vehicles, including of KSRTC buses, was seen on the Kerala-Karnataka and the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border check-posts at Bavali, Tholpetty, Muthanga, and Noolpuzha after the vehicles were blocked by protesters.
Hartal supporters took out protest marches in various parts of the district.