Advocates may approach tribunal for nod to Mahadayi project

They may meet Amit Shah, Sonia for support

Protests continued in Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi and Bagalkot districts on Saturday, demanding that the Mahadayi project be implemented.

While a rail roko was held in Bagalkot, the advocates’ association in Belagavi is mulling over filing a petition with the Mahadayi Tribunal, seeking clearance for the project. Members of the Bagalkot district unit of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike blocked the Solapur-Hubballi inter-city express train at the Bagalkot station.

Ramesh Badnur, president of the unit, charged the BJP with trying to scuttle the protests. He said that Centre was indulging in politics over the issue. Badnur said that the 28 Lok Sabha members from the State should resign from their posts, in protest against the Centre’s stand on the river-linking project. Failing which, the agitators would lay a siege to the houses of the MPs, he warned. 

Farmers held protests in Nargund for the 45th consecutive day, by taking out a procession of bullock carts. The farmers had come from Badami taluk in Bagalkot district, besides Savadatti and Ramdurg taluks in Belagavi district.  

Teachers and members of the Banjara Association held separate rallies in Hubballi. The non-party farmers’ agitation committee besieged the BSNL office as a mark of protest.
Senior counsel A G Mulawadmath announced in Belagavi that they would take a final decision on the future course of action at a meeting of the farmers’ associations of the four affected districts, at Nargund on September 5.

The meeting would decide on meeting BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, seeking their co-operation in the implementation of the Mahadayi project.
Vehicular traffic resumed on the Hubballi-Vijayapura national highway-214, as there was a break in the roadblock protest, following an appeal by the non-party farmers’ agitation committee.

However, buses belonging to the state road transport corporations remained off the roads. People from Hubballi, Navalgund and Nargund taluks faced a lot of inconvenience because of this.