Mangalore, July 4: Normal life across Karnataka's coastal districts is expected to come to a standstill on Monday as parties opposed to the Congress-led government at the Centre have joined hands to enforce a nationwide bundh in protest against the rise in fuel prices.
Most of the schools and colleges in the twin districts are expected to be closed, as the principals and head of the institutions have been given authority by the education department to take decision about declaring holiday. Many schools and colleges have announced that they will remain closed on the bundh day.
The bundh is also expected to hit the public transport system in the district. Karumbayya, a senior official at the KSRTC Mangalore division said that if there was any real risk of violence, the movement of buses will be stopped, otherwise transportation will remain as usual.
However private bus operators in the district are yet to come out of their dilemma over the bundh. Though they are not openly supportive of the bundh, they have decided to keep their buses off the roads fearing stone pelting by miscreants during the day.
Rajawarma Ballal, the State President of Canara Bus Owners Association said, he neither supported, nor opposed the bundh. “We oppose fuel price hike, but at the same time we don't want to disturb the public by observing a bundh. A bundh only can create harm to the public and will not serve any purpose. But we are not ready to challenge the bundh,” he said.
Krishna Anchan, President of City Bus Owners Association of Udupi, however, backed the bundh and said that none of the city buses in the district will operate during bundh hours.
The Federation of Karnataka Auto-rickshaw Drivers Union, DK District Committee has also expressed its support for the bundh. All the auto-rickshaws in Dakshina Kannada will remain off roads from 6: 00am to 6:00pm on Monday, said Sunil Kumar Bajal, District committee President of the Federation.
Meanwhile, Mangalore police have geared up to tackle any untoward incident during the shutdown. “We have taken all security measures to ensure no untoward incident takes place. Anyone who takes law into their hands and attempts to paralyse the city shall be dealt with strict action,” warned Seemanth Kumar Singh, Mangalore City Police Commissioner.
“Besides City Police force, additional forces such as KSRP will also be present on the street to maintain vigil,” he told Coastal Digest. “Additional personnel will be posted for patrolling in the areas like bus stands, railway stations and airport” he said adding that 15 extra jeeps too will be pressed for patrolling duties.
A Subrahmanyeshwara Rao, Superintendent of Police, DK appealed people to maintain peace and contact police if there is any incident of violence. He said 12 extra armed vehicles will be available for patrolling in addition to the existing 22 vehicles in rural areas of the districts which remained under his jurisdiction after the establishment of the Mangalore Police Commissionerate.
United opposition:
In a rare moment of unity, the Left and Right parties, are separately backing the day-long strike seeking a rollback of the fuel prices.
As expected Congress leaders see a “political game” behind the protest and several MLAs of the party justify the hike as “an inevitable move”. However, BJP and CPI (M) leaders are determined to cash in on the public outrage and make maximum of the growing discontent among the “aam aadmi”.
On the other hand both Left and Right parties are trying to maintain their existing ideological distance during the bundh, despite their so called “unity of purpose”.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mangalore MP and BJP leader, urged people to cooperate for a 'peaceful' bundh and maintained that BJP was joining hands with the Left parties only for a 'just' cause.
Muneer Katipalla, President of DYFI DK district unit said they do not bother about the participation of Right parties in the bundh, as their aim is nothing but exerting pressure on central government to rollback fuel price hike. “We are going for a bundh because our leaders have called for it. We are not ready to forge any bond with BJP leaders even at the local level”, he maintained.
UT Khader, MLA for Mangalore North, justifying the 'inevitable' fuel price hike by the union government led by Congress party, termed the impending bundh as a 'mere political drama' by non-Congress parties. He said that Union government was helpless in this regard, as the decision on fixing the price of petroleum products, had been taken at the international level.
“Our intention is not to deceive the common people. Being citizens of India we have to think about the future of our nation too along with our personal life. If we pay a couple of rupees extra for a litre of petrol as per the need of time, the government will get more money for its development programmes, especially for boosting infrastructure”, Mr Khader said accusing the state government of misleading the general public in order to hide its blunders.
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