JOIN USIn the first case, as many as 440 activists attached to various trade unions tried to lay siege to the central post office at Nehru Circle.
The trade unions that had assembled under the banner of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) had organised jail bharo as part of nation wide call against price hike, demanding minimum wage of Rs 10,000 for workforce, among other demands. They converged at Gandhi Square and took out a procession till Nehru Circle through Ashoka road.
When they tried to barge into the post office, police personnel intervened arresting 380 women and 60 men. However, the protesters were released later at City Armed Reserve (CAR) police grounds, where they were held for nearly two hours.
Prominent among the leaders who were arrested were Raju, Jagannath and H R Seshadri
A platoon of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), two of City Armed Reserve (CAR) and additional men from almost all the police stations in the city had been deputed on bandobust duty.
At Uppara hostel
In the second case, tension prevailed for sometime, when the members of Mysore and Chamarajanagar Zill Uppara Sangha made a bid to barge into the TTL College of Business Management in Saraswathipuram here on Tuesday. Police had to resort to mild force to rein in the protesters. However, it couldn’t dampen the spirit of the protesters, who were eventually arrested by the police.
Members of the sangha had gathered in large numbers under the leadership of Bhagiratha Uppara Mahapeeth Seer Purushottamanandapuri and their legal advisor S Arun Kumar demanding the district administration to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Ownership
The contentious issue here is the ownership of the land on Saraswathipuram main road where Uppara Students Hostel and TTL College are located. While the sangha claims to own the land as it was given for the welfare of the community, TTL Trust running the college claims it to be as its own.
Apparently enraged, the agitators made a futile bid to forcibly vacate the students in the college only to be arrested by the police. In all 17 protesters- prominent among them being Basavarajappa, Vishakantaiah, Mahadeva Shetty, Shantaraju and Devegowda were arrested as a preventive measure under section 17 of Karnataka Police Act.
Earlier also, when the agitators sat on dharna, police restrained the milling crowd from joining the agitators by locking the main gate, only to face their (protestors) wrath. Police argued that the permission had been granted only for the assembling of 50 agitators and also outside the premises.
While the organisers had clearly violated the order- by the gathering of more than 50 agitators and also staging sit-in inside the compound. However, police bought peace by unlocking the gate.
Tension returned after a while when the protestors without giving any clue ran towards the college to invite police action. Police used mild force restricting them to the portico of the college.