Agitation for Mahadayi water intensifies across five districts

The agitation by farmers demanding that the Mahadayi river should be linked with Malaprabha river is intensifying by the day.

Widespread protests were held by farmers in Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Belagavi and Bagalkot districts to press their demands. Farmers staged a roadblock protest for more than four hours on the Tarihalla bypass road on the outskirts of the city.

They had parked their bullock-carts and tractors on the road. The farmers set fire to tyres as a mark of protest.

The bypass connects to the Pune-Bengaluru highway. Protesting farmers walked in a procession from Garaga village near Dharwad, to the office of the deputy commissioner in Dharwad.

A roadblock protest was held for nearly seven hours at Navalagund in Dharwad district. When farmers were stopping the vehicles, the driver of a multi-utility vehicle (MUV) - a Tempo Trax - drove the vehicle in the reverse direction. Muttappa Eti, a 24-year-old farmer from Ibrahimpura village, was injured in the process. This agitated the farmers even more. They turned the vehicle upside down and broke its window panes, resulting in a tense situation. The farmers laid a siege to the office of the Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom), in protest against frequent power disruptions.

At Naragund on the Hubballi-Vijayapura highway, the farmers held a roadblock protest and set fire to tyres in the middle of the road. This help up traffic on the road.

Hundreds of farmers took out a bike rally from Kudalsangama in Bagalkot district, demanding that the two rivers be linked.

A religious leader, Kannada organisations and farmers’ associations blocked the national highway at Shiggaon in Haveri district as a mark of protest.

A bundh was observed at Kundagol in Dharwad district, by traders and farmers’ organisations.

The bundh was total, with shops and business establishments downing their shutters. Government offices, banks, schools and colleges did not function.