Title - Bandh call: Security tightened

DHARWAD: Security has been beefed up in Dharwad district to avert any untoward incident during the proposed Karnataka bandh on Saturday.Police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that normal life is not disrupted due to the bandh call given by certain organizations to protest Cauvery Regulatory Authority's direction to Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water from Cauvery.Senior police officials told TOI on Friday that additional forces have been deployed in sensitive and important junctions and there will be continuous patrolling by mobile squads.Schools and PU colleges in the district have not declared holiday on Saturday as it happens to be the last working day before the winter vacation. The vacation starts from Sunday and ends on October 29. However the students coming to Dharwad and Hubli from surrounding villages may skip the college on Saturday fearing disruption in vehiculr movement. Many students staying in hostels have left for their villages/towns on Friday.While members of Karnataka Sene staged a protest near Alur Venktarao circle and DC's office in Dharwad on Friday and shouted slogans against the Prime Minister and Tamil Nadu chief minister, the members of Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene have planned to block the road near Tegur on Pune-Bangalore National Highway No 4 on Saturday morning.

Unlike on other occasions, there has been spontaneous support emanating from various organizations for the bandh call. Normal life had been brought to standstill last week due to Bharat bandh call given by BJP and Left parties to protest hike in diesel price and cap on LPG cylinders. Now another bandh call within a short span has not gone well with the people.

The Cauvery issue is perceived in north Karnataka as an issue concerning a part of south Karnataka. There is also a feeling that the people in south and coastal Karnataka have not responded positively to the calls given by the people in north Karnataka whenever there has been injustice to the region.

"When we were fighting for high court bench in north Karnataka and South Western Railway zone in Hubli and whenever there has been injustice to Karnataka in sharing of water from River Krishna, the people in south Karnataka have been indifferent to the issues. Why entire Karnataka should observe bandh for a cause concerning a few districts" asked Ashok Kumar Desai, who has been part of several agitations.

Veteran journalist and Karnatak Vidyavardhakh Sangha president Patil Putappa charged that the Centre is meting out step-motherly treatment to Karnataka and said the direction by the Cauvery Regulatory Authority to Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamilnadu is yet another example of the partisan attitude.

He told reporters here on Friday that every Kannadiga should protest against this and respond positively to the Karnataka bandh call given by several organizations on Saturday. "Without discriminating between north Karnataka and south Karnataka, everyone residing in Karnataka should voluntarily participate in the bandh and exert pressure on the Centre to reconsider its decision", he asserted.

Putappa stated that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been signed by the then Mysore Maharaja and the Madras Presidency regarding sharing of Cauvery water. However, after Karnataka was formed this MoU should have been diluted.

This matter was brought before several governments, but unfortunately no political party in the state found it legitimate to dilute the MoU. Hence, every year battle for Cauvery water is going on, he said.

The Centre has sent an expert team to study the inflow of water and the condition of the state farmers dependent on Cauvery for their agriculture. He hoped that the team would give a scientific report to the Union government.