JOIN USMeet to discuss future course of agitation
Members of the Permanent Irrigation Struggle Committee will meet at the APMC yard on Saturday morning to discuss the next move in the fight.
The indefinite protest, including members of various organisations, has continued for 40 days outside the assistant commissioner’s (AC) office in the City, while in Bagepalli, members of the Committee and the Chitravati Preservation Committee have continued their stir for 18 days now.
More organisations have booked dates to participate in the protests in both Chikkaballlapur and Bagepalli.
Ministers’ visits
Union ministers Veerappa Moily and K H Muniyappa, and District In-charge Minister A Narayanaswamy had visited the AC’s office in the City and spoken to the protesters.
Moily had said he had spoken to Basavaraj Bommai, the State Water Resources Minister, about a permanent irrigation project, while Muniyappa said, “We need a permanent irrigation programme, not the Yettinahole project.”
The protesters wore black bands on November 1, the Rajyotsava Day, demanding that the Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa meet them and fulfill their requests.
Since then, however, no elected representative or officer of the State government has visited the protest site. A Narayanaswamy had already received their memorandum during a Rajyotsava programme and left for Bangalore.
Other groups
“Members of many other organisations are registering their names as part of the stir, expressing support to the protest. The leaders are also making long speeches in display of the strength of the organisation, sometimes forcefully demanding an implementation of an irrigation project,” said a member of the Committee, speaking to Deccan Herald.
“The minister continue to accept our memoranda, but we will not withdraw till our demands are fulfilled. We had not expected this stir to go on for more than a month’s time. We have already set forth and will not back out,” the member added.
“But we still wonder when the protest will really gain traction and reach a critical point that will get us a positive result.”