Bandh is total, peaceful in city

Bandh is total, peaceful in city
The Times of India

Bangalore: The North-South divide in Karnataka was almost wiped out with the entire state — barring the coastal districts — observing the dawn-to-dusk bandh on Wednesday in response to the call given by Kannada organisations over the Belgaum border issue with Maharashtra.
Barring incidents of stonethrowing in Belgaum and Haveri, the bandh was peaceful. A torchlight parade and dharna in Kolar, rail roko in Mysore, Kolar and Haveri, road roko in Chikballapur characterised the bandh.
Schools, colleges, cinema halls were closed all over the state except in the coastal districts. Processions were taken out in all district and taluk headquarters except in Chikmagalur, where prohibitory orders to prevent the Datta Mala pilgrims from taking out a procession are in place.
Bangalore came to a standstill with the bandh being total: shops, hotels, offices, educational institutions, government offices, banks, theatres, malls and other establishments remained closed. Autorickshaws and taxis remained off roads while only skeletal bus services operated.
With the large-scale violence in the wake of actor Rajkumar’s death still fresh in their minds, people preferred to stay indoors, and this too helped in the bandh ending peacefully, a senior police officer said. Another reason was that police engaged cameramen to record incidents of violence, if any. “The city remained incident-free and we thank the people for maintaining law and order,’’ police commissioner N Achuta Rao said.
However, there were minor incidents of violence. One KSRTC and seven BMTC buses were damaged and a policeman sustained injuries in stone-throwing reported on the city outskirts. Stonethrowing was also reported from Bommasandra, Nelamangala, Electronics City, Whitefield, Magadi Road and R T Nagar.
A constable attached to Kengeri police station sustained minor injuries when Kannada activists hurled stones at the police in Pantharapalya, off Mysore Road, after a sub-inspector tried to chase them away.
The police took over 150 activists of Kannada Rakshana Vedike led by Narayana Gowda into custody when they attempted to enter the city railway station and stage a rail roko. Kannada movement leaders Vatal Nagaraj, Sa Ra Govindu and Kannada Sahitya Parishath president Chandrashekar Patil were arrested near Raj Bhavan.