Kannada activists threaten to disrupt bus and train services to TN

The execution of the Hogenakal drinking water project by neighbouring Tamil Nadu is threatening to snowball into a major controversy with pro-Kannada groups planning to disrupt bus and train services between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

A day after targeting film theatres screening Tamil movies in Bangalore and warning cable operators to stop telecasting Tamil programmes, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike has threatened to stop bus and train services to Tamil Nadu if the controversial drinking water project is not stalled.

“As a first step we will ban Tamil movies and television channels. We have asked the cable operators to stop telecasting Tamil programmes. If Tamil Nadu goes ahead with the project, we will stop bus and train services between the two states”, President of the Vedike K Narayana Gowda told reporters.

The Vedike’s threat to disrupt bus and train services to Tamil Nadu comes a day after hundreds of pro-Kannada activists stormed nine film theatres across Bangalore demanding a halt to screening of Tamil films in protest against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s remarks over the Hogenakal project.

Karunanidhi was reported to have come down heavily on pro-Kannada organizations for protesting against the project and declared that Tamil Nadu will execute the project at all costs.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s remarks saw Kannada activists come out on motorcycles in large numbers and attacked the film theatres screening Tamil movies. After evacuating the audience, the angry protestors tore down the banners and warned the theatre owners against screening Tamil movies. Many theatres in Bangalore voluntarily stopped screening Tamil movies.

Meanwhile, security has been heightened at vulnerable places in Bangalore, which has a sizable Tamil population. “Security will be intensified. We will not allow anybody to take law into their hands”, said Bipin Gopalakrishna, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Bangalore.

Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka Sudhakar Rao told reporters that the State Government had written to the Federal Water Resources Ministry seeking its intervention to resolve the dispute between the two states.

He also said that Karnataka and written to Tamil Nadu Government requesting it to stop all development projects at Hogenakal till the issue is resolved.
The Rs 13.34 billion Hogenakal project taken up at Hogenakal falls on Karnataka’s border with Tamil Nadu envisages supply of 160 million litres of water per day to 4 million people in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu.