Karnataka bandh disrupts normal life; protests bring Bengaluru, Mysuru to a halt, BJP, Congress trade political barbs

Normal life was disrupted in different parts of Karnataka on Thursday due to a state-wide bandh called by pro-Kannada outfits demanding the prime minister’s intervention in the inter-state Mahadayi river water dispute with neighbouring Goa. Most of the impact of the dawn-to-dusk bandh was seen in northern districts that come under Malaprabha river basin. In other parts of the state also, normal life has been hit as certain public services were paralysed. However, police said elaborate security arrangements have been made across the state to ensure that no untoward incident occurs. Bandh has significant impact on Bengaluru The shutdown logged out India’s tech hub Bengaluru, with IT majors Infosys, Wipro and other multinational firms suspending their operations for the day. [caption id=“attachment_4319863” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A protest in Bengaluru. Ayswarya Murthy/101Reporters[/caption] Infosys campuses at Electronics City on the city outskirts and other locations were closed on Thursday till 6.30 p.m. as result of the shutdown. The IT major’s offices in Mysuru and Mangaluru were also shut. A Wipro official said in a statement, “On account of the shutdown, as a precautionary measure, Wipro has declared a holiday for employees in Karnataka on Thursday.” Localities like Whitefield, a suburb in the northeastern part of the city, and Manyata Tech Park in the northern part, housing several global IT giants like Microsoft, IBM and Cognizant, have also suspended their operations for the day. Bengaluru is home to at least 750 multinational companies and over 2,000 IT firms, with nearly 20 lakh techies working in them. The city contributes to about 40 percent of the total IT exports of the country. Public transport like buses, taxis stayed off the roads, and schools, colleges, offices, hotels, restaurants, malls and markets were also closed, disrupting normal life in the city. BJP hits out at Congress at rally Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah addressed a rally at Mysuru, and made a reference to the bandh across the state. “The Congress today behaved like it did during the Emergency by deploying the police to hold off supporters, clamping down on transport services and by organising this bandh,” he said. The rally had been postponed by an hour-and-a-half due to vociferous protests in Mysuru, The News Minute reported. Slamming chief minister Siddaramaiah, Shah said, “Siddaramaiah is equal to corruption and corruption is equal to Siddaramaiah. Do anyone of you here have a watch worth Rs 70 lakh on your wrist here? Your chief minister wears watches worth Rs 70 lakh.” Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao reacted sharply to Shah’s allegation that more than 20 BJP-RSS activist have been killed in the state in the past four years, saying that the BJP is ‘intent on spreading lies.’

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking that Lingayat religious leader and educationist Sri Sri Sivakumara Swamigulu be conferred with the Bharat Ratna.

What the dispute is about The 77-kilometre long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district of north-west Karnataka and flows into Goa and eventually joins the Arabian Sea off the west coast. Though the river flows runs 29km in Karnataka and 52km in Goa, its catchment area is spread over 2,032km in the southern state as against 1,580km in the western state (Goa). Karnataka has been asking Goa since 2001 to release 7.6 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of the river water. Karnataka plans to build two canals at Kalasa and Banduri, which are the tributaries of the river in the state, to divert and supply the water to the four districts. The Mahaydai Water Disputes Tribunal, headed by JN Panchal, on 28 July, 2016 rejected the state’s petition for releasing the river water, citing various grounds, including ecological damage the twin canal projects may cause. With inputs from agencies