Protests, rallies mark the day

Educationists, students, GP workers, BJP workers stage stir

Mysuru on Tuesday witnessed a series of protests and rallies, as various organisations took to streets urging for the fulfilment of various demands.

Various educationists and thinkers under the banner of All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFFRE) took out a rally from Maharani’s New Type Model School (NTMS) on Narayan Shastry road to Kuvempu Institute for Kannada Studies (KIKS) at Manasagangotri, urging that the interests of the government schools and Kannada language be safeguarded. The rallyists opposed commercialisation of education.

Inmates of various hostels in the city, took out a rally under the banner of Bahujan Vidyarthi Sangha (BVS) demanding the intervention of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to address their grievances. The students who rallied from Ramaswamy Circle to Deputy Commissioner’s office via JLB road, also disgraced the effigy of Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya, by smearing cow dung and muck at it. They also demanded the resignation of the minister.

In another dharna in front of the main office of Mysore City Corporation (MCC) on New Sayyaji Rao road, members of Citizens Committees Coordination Forum and students, led by their convenor B Ravi demanded the civic body to wake up to address their demands of restoring the Freedom Fighter’s Memorial Park. Though the forum submitted a list of demands as proposed in its preliminary meeting towards restoring the park, the MCC had failed to act on it, the agitators alleged.

Various Gram Panchayat workers staged a stir in front of the Zilla Panchayat office, demanding the local body to address their long pending woes. In the protest staged under the banner of Centre for Indian Trade Unions, the protesters demanded the government to regularise their services, besides considering the service of other workers who have completed 10 years of service.

BJP rural unit workers led by their president M V Hemanth Kumar Gowda protested in front of the Mini Vidhana Soudha at Nazarbad. They alleged that the government had failed to rollback the bus fares even though the Centre had slashed fuel rates. The government had also failed to supply adequate power to irrigation pumpsets of the farmers, they alleged.