State bundh on April 10

State bundh on April 10
DH News Service,Bangalore:
Pro-Kannada organisations will observe a Karnataka bundh on April 10 to pressure the Centre to halt the Hogenakal project taken up by the Tamil Nadu government in Kollegal taluk.

Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), Akhila Karnataka Gadi Horata Samithi, Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP), Samatha Sainik Dal and other Kannada organisations have supported the bundh.

Gadinadu Horata Samithi took a decision on Wednes-day to call a bundh on April 10. A meeting of Kannada organisations convened on Thursday — and attended by KRV president T A Narayan Gowda, MLC Mukhyamantri Chandru and KSP president Prof Chandrashekhar Patil — also took a unanimous decision to join the bundh. The organisations will take out a massive rally at Kollegal on April 14.

Protests
On Thursday, several organisations staged protests in the City condemning the statement of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Hogenakal issue.

KRV activists ransacked In Cable (Hathway) Network office, owned by a Tamil leader, on K H Road. They pelted stones at the building and broke the glass panes. But the police swung into action and prevented further damage. Irked, the protesters stoned a TVS Suzuki show-room. The police took 36 protesters into custody.
The Kannada activists also barged into a satellite bus-stop on Mysore Road and blackened the nameplates of the Tamil Nadu state transport buses.

Members of the KRV (Shivarame Gowda faction) staged a protest in Vijaynagar against the attack on a Kannadiga-owned hotel in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Kannada Sene members began a night-long protest on MG Road, demanding that the Centre stay the water project.

MK refutes charge
Chennai, DHNS:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Thursday refuted the charge of senior Congress leader from Karnataka S M Krishna that it was the “harsh language” used by him on the Hogenakal issue that had sparked anti-Tamil protests in Bangalore and elsewhere.

In identical letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, copies of which were made available to the media here, Karunanidhi denied using any harsh language at a public meeting in Chennai or while speaking on a resolution in the Assembly, unanimously adopted on April 1.

He wrote to the PM: “As a person who knows me fully well, I am quite sure you will not believe that provocative words would have been uttered by me.

“But as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, I cannot keep quiet when in the neighbouring state buses from Tamil Nadu are burnt, Tamil cinema houses are ransacked, Tamil Sangam office in Bangalore is attacked and Tamilians are kept in constant fear.”

Quoting media reports, the chief minister said the water project had been cleared by the Centre and Karnataka. At this stage some politicians in Karnataka were trying to sabotage the scheme for political gains, he said.
He hoped that Dr Singh and Sonia “would appreciate the just cause for which Tamil Nadu has been fighting within the democratic and constitutional framework”. A copy of the letter was also forwarded to Krishna.