Shutdown cripples normal life in Karnataka

Normal life was crippled in Karnataka following a dawn to dusk shutdown called by pro-Kannada organizations yesterday to denounce the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final award delivered recently.

The shutdown evoked a near-total response in Bangalore and the Cauvery belt comprising the districts of Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajanagar, where shops and business establishments remained closed and public transport was paralysed. Educational institutions remained shut for the day and attendance in Government offices was thin.

Barring stray incidents of violence like pelting of stones at petrol stations in Chamarajanagar and torching of thirteen vehicles parked outside the Railway workshop in Mysore, the situation in the State has remained peaceful, according Director General of Karnataka Police K R Srinivasan. “The overall situation has been peaceful”, he told reporters.

Bangalore was virtually shut-down for the day with the normally busy roads wearing a deserted look. Buses, autorickshaws and taxis kept off the roads even as groups of Kannada activists staged protests outside the Bangalore airport and Bangalore Railway station.

Several in-bound and out-bound flights were rescheduled on account of the shutdown. Meanwhile, Kannada activists representing Karnataka Rakshana Vedike detained trains at Bangalore, Mysore, Hassan and Bangarpet in Kolar district. The police arrested hundreds of pro-Kannada activists including Vedike President Narayan Gowda in Bangalore.

With the police imposing prohibitory orders, which bans the assembly of more than four persons, several Kannada chauvinists including MLA Vatal Nagaraj and Kannada Sahitya Parishat President Chandrashekar Patil and their supporters courting arrest outside the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore during a demonstration.

Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms too announced a holiday on Monday, but made arrangements for their employees to work from homes.

The proceedings in Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council were adjourned due to lack of quorum. In the Legislative Assembly, Vatal Nagaraj urged the Speaker Krishna to adjourn the House in view of the statewide shut down. But, Home Minister M P Prakash opposed the demand for adjournment on the grounds that it would amount to Government supporting the shutdown.

The principal Opposition party Congress stayed away from the proceedings of the House. However, opinion was strongly divided among the rest of the Opposition and ruling coalition members over the demand for adjournment. Eventually, Speaker Krishna adjourned the House due to lack of quorum. Similiarly, proceedings in the Legislative Council too were adjourned for the day.

Cable television operators in Mysore extended support to the shutdown by blacking out all non-Kannada television channels.

Meanwhile, the police had made elaborate security arrangements throughout the State by deploying more than 75,000 personnel on duty. The pro-Kannada organizations had called for a statewide shutdown yesterday to protest the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final award delivered recently, apportioning 419 tmc feet of water to Tamil Nadu against Karnataka’s share of 270 tmc.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy convened a meeting of senior Government officials to review the law and order situation in the State. After chairing the meeting, Kumaraswamy told reporters that he would soon be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and brief him about the “injustice” meted out to Karnataka in the Cauvery dispute.