Hogenakal: State bundh on April 14

Hogenakal: State bundh on April 14
Bangalore, dhns:
The Hogenakal row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, threatened to snowball on Tuesday.

Though attacks targeting Tamil institutions abated, various Kannada organisations announced a blanket ban on Tamil television channels and movies from Wednesday and prepared for a Karnataka bundh on April 14. The organisations also decided to prevent the entry of Tamil Nadu vehicles into Karnataka.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of pro-Kannada organisations convened by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), which spearheaded violent protests on Monday.

The meeting also demanded that the governor and the advocate-general submit a report to the Supreme Court.

Procession today
A torchlight procession will be taken out by the Vedike on Wednesday evening from BBMP head office to Raj Bhavan. A protest rally is to be organised at Kollegal on April 12.

On the political front, major parties including the Congress and BJP turned their ire on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his remarks on the issue.

KPCC President Mallikarjun Kharge said: “Being a senior leader, Karunanidhi should not make inflammatory statements detrimental to the federal system in the country. Moreover, he should rise above state-interest and keep the interest of country in mind.”

Kharge reminded Karunanidhi that Karnataka, along with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, had provided 15 tmc ft of water to TN under the Telugu Ganga project to meet the water requirements of Chennai.

Guv to Delhi

Meanwhile, Governor Rameshwar Thakur will be leaving for New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the Hogenakal issue with the Centre. He is likely to meet the Union Water Resources Minister during his visit, sources said. Kannada Sene Karnataka, in the meantime, decided to stage a night-long protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue, seal the Central government offices, wage a legal battle, take out a jatha to Hogenakal and call for an all-Karnataka bundh.

These decisions were taken at another meeting of water resources experts, legal experts, writers and intellectuals convened by the Kannada Sene on Tuesday.

The Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samithi staged a protest and sought immediate intervention of the Central government to resolve the crisis. The CPM has urged the Centre to intervene and protect the interests of both the states.

Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) sought the Centre’s intervention and warned that the TN government would be responsible if situation turned worse. The KFCC office-bearers took strong exception to the recent statements made by TN CM.

Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said in New Delhi that the controversial Hogenakal issue should be resolved cordially. Speaking to reporters, the former chief minister said the project pertained to drinking water and not irrigation and that it was only a territorial dispute. The two state governments, should come forward to amicably resolve the issue, he added.

BJP National General Secretary Ananth Kumar termed the project an “illegal act” of the TN government as they had taken up the project at a time when the river water sharing dispute was not yet resolved. He alleged that the TN government had kept the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the dark about the Rs 1,500-crore project.



SECURITY UP

Police beefed up security at the resi-dence of Karunanidhi’s daughter Selvi in Bangalore. Commissioner N Achuta Rao said Basavaraj, a KRV activist, was held in connection with attack on Tamil Sangam.