JOIN US The bandh in Dakshina Kannada, in response to the call given by the Nethravathi Rakshana Samyukta Samithi to oppose the Yettinahole project, was total and
peaceful.
Police were seen patrolling the City, but they did not have much work as the bandh was voluntary and peaceful in almost all parts of the district. Barring two or three spots in Ullal, where tyres were burnt, no untoward incident was reported from any part of the district.
No private or KSRTC bus plied throughout the day. Almost all autorickshaws stayed off the road, contributing towards the success of the bandh.
Barring essential services such as medical shops and milk booths, every commercial shop, petrol bunk, vehicle service centre, film theatre, shopping mall, hotel and restaurant, central market, and fish and meat stall remained closed. There were, however, a few medical shops too that did not open their doors. Hence, the ever-busy port city wore a deserted look on Thursday.
IT giant Infosys too had declared a holiday in support of the bandh. Also, although banks remained open, there were hardly a few customers. Similarly, hospitals were open too, but the number of patients visiting the outpatient departments were reduced to half, which is primarily attributed to non-availability of the public transport system.
A number of private medical clinics, however, remained closed in the city.
The bandh evoked good response in Belthangady, Bantwal and Puttur taluks, but mixed response in Sullia taluk.
Voluntary bandh
Quite interestingly, unlike the previous bandhs in the district, the one on Thursday witnessed most of the people voluntarily express support by remaining indoors. A few volunteers under the aegis of Nethravathi Rakshana Samyukta Samithi staged a road block. This disrupted the movement of vehicles in Surathkal, Ullal and Lalbagh, but the roads were cleared for the traffic to move, after a short while.
Addressing the protesters at Lalbagh, Samithi President Vijaykumar Shetty said that there was a good response for the bandh including in the hometown of District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai. He, however, warned that if the government does not respond to the demand against Yettinahole project, the protests will be intensified.
Passengers suffer
People from faraway places like Bengaluru, Mumbai and other states – especially those who did not have any private vehicles – were caught unawares as they could not reach their destinations.
To add to their woes, the hotels too were closed.
“I did not know about the bandh and I have no option but to walk till Kulshekar,” said Selvam, who had arrived from Chennai, to join a team of workers in Kulshekar. As he did not know any language other than Tamil, he had a tough time finding where Kulshekar was located.
Many passengers preferred to remain at the railway station and the KSRTC bus stand throughout the day as they did not have any other option.
Bus service hit in Udupi
The bandh call in Dakshina Kannada did not affect Udupi district, the exception being for the long-route government buses from all over Karnataka to Dakshina Kannada passing through the district. The buses had to cancel or postpone the trips until evening.
The private buses plied as usual, but the buses plying towards Mangaluru had to cut short their journey at Mulki (DK-Udupi border).
The government buses were seen plying during late evening hours.