Traffic comes to a halt in central business district

Traffic comes to a halt in central business district

The Hindu

Demonstrations were held at over 30 places in the city

# Demonstrations were held at over 30 places in the city
# Screening of Tamil movie stopped

BANGALORE: The stress levels of Bangaloreans climbed a couple of notches on Saturday as traffic ground to a halt, thanks to demonstrations by several organisations to protest against the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. That it was Saturday afternoon when traffic usually peaks did not help matters.

Demonstrations were held at over 30 places in the city and students and autorickshaw drivers too joined the protests on Saturday. In a repeat of Friday's gridlock, traffic came to halt in the central business district.

Vehicular movement was affected on the city's upmarket Mahatma Gandhi Road and surrounding areas as several organisations held demos near the Mahatma Gandhi statue simultaneously.

Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samata Sainik Dal, Adarsha Auto and Taxi Drivers' Union and Federation of Karnataka State Women's Self Help Groups sat on a dharna near the statue. Former Ministers Motamma, Rani Satish and Leeladevi R. Prasad and former BJP MLA Premila Nesargi were among those who participated.

Processions

The Janata Dal (United) workers took out a procession from their office to Mysore Bank Circle and blocked the road there for sometime. Dalit Action Committee members marched from Mysore Bank Circle to Shivananda Stores. The Praja Vimochana Chaluvali activists took out a motorcycle rally on Hosur Road.

The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists, who were protesting the tribunal award, stormed the Sri Balaji cinema at Vannarpet in Vivekanagar, which was screening the Tamil movie "Thamara Bharani." They pulled down the posters of the movie and also stopped the screening. Members of the audience fled as the slogan-shouting activists barged into the cinema.

Meanwhile, the inmates of the Bangalore Central Prison went on a 24-hour hunger strike. Around 5,000 prisoners, including 150 women, participated in the protest.

The Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha MLA Vatal Nagaraj staged a novel protest by auctioning four of the MPs elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

Alleging that these MPs had failed to protect the State's interest, Mr. Nagaraj "auctioned" them for five paisa each near the busy GPO Circle. Tags bearing the names of the MPs were put around the neck of four men, whose faces were masked. Mr. Nagaraj said the auction had been postponed as it did not meet the reserve price: the highest bid was one paisa.