Hundreds of farmers staged a protest in front of Maurya Hotel at Anand Rao Circle in central Bengaluru on Monday morning for a complete loan waiver and implementation of the Swaminathan committee report.
By noon, when there was no response from the government, the agitating farmers threatened to lay a siege to the Vidhana Soudha and started marching towards Dr Ambedkar Veedhi from Seshadri Road around 2.30 pm.
The march continued at full pace with more farmers joining the march, which caught the city police unawares as to how to manage the crowd.
While the policemen began putting up barricades, some protesters started blocking the road, disturbing the traffic movement. Additional reinforcements were called and a police team resorted to a mild caning to stop the farmers from heading towards the Vidhana Soudha.
Around 40 farmers were bundled into a bus, taken into preventive custody and later released, the police said.
