What would one get if one seeks drinking water in the ‘Sun City’ Gulbarga?
Obviously, a legal notice from the assistant commissioner, who is also the sub-divisional executive magistrate. And this is what has  happened here.
According to Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey, it is illegal to hold protests demanding drinking water and would be penalised if protested.
However, it is a different matter that the district administration and the Gulbarga Mahanagara Palike (GMP) have completely failed in providing adequate water to the people in the City, especially, due to mismanagement of the water supply system. And on May 11, different organisations and political parties have called for ‘Gulbarga bundh.’ As the district administration, the GMP and the elected representatives have miserably failed in providing drinking water to the people, since last several months. The scarcity peaked with the City going without water for nearly 10 days at a stretch and the temperatures reached 43 degree Celsius mark.

Agitations
Consequently, agitations began in all parts of the City under the leadership of Hyderabad-Karnataka Janapara Horata Samithi President Laxman Dasti.
And on Wednesday night (May 9), Mr Dasti was called to the Station Bazaar police station, where a notice by the Assistant Commissioner Sirasgi Nagappa, was served on him by the police.

Charges
A copy of the notice, which is available with ‘Deccan Herald’, charges Mr Dasti with creating a law and order situation in the City by holding protests. It also charges Mr Dasti with holding rasta rokos disrupting traffic, gheroaing officials, locking up public offices, making instigating speeches, and providing wrong information to the public.
It also states that due to the provocative speeches, people have gone berserk and are bent upon damaging public property and causing public inconvenience. The notice has ordered Mr Dasti to appear before the assistant commissioner and provide an undertaking that he would not undertake such actions (meaning protests) for the next six months. And this is the first instance in the City in the recent times that a person has received a legal notice for holding protests.
Nevertheless, the issuing of legal notice has raised many an eyebrows. Most of the organisations and political parties have condemned the district administration for suppressing agitations by people with force. They say, protests are a means adopted by people when something wrong is done on them. And an attempt is being made by the district administration to suppress this right.