The city came to a grinding halt on Saturday following the ‘Karnataka Bandh’ call given by various pro-Kannada organisations against release of 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.
A number of organisations supported the bandh. The activists, carrying the Kannada flag went around the city raising slogans. Some shops in extension areas, which were opened in the morning, were forcibly closed by the activists.
The members of pro-Kannada activists staged protests near Town Hall, Corporation Circle, Mysore Bank Circle, Majestic, Rajajinagar, Freedom Park, Anand Rao Circle, Mahatma Gandhi statues at Maurya Junction and M G Road. The protesters thronged these areas in two- and four-wheelers and tempos.
They formed human chains and burnt effigies of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at various places. Hundreds of motorcyclists moved in different parts of the city raising slogans against Jayalalithaa and Manmohan Singh.
Some of them also did ‘urulu seve’ (rolling on the ground) as a sign of protest. Former BJP leader in the BBMP Council B R Nanjundappa prayed for amicable solution to the row. Kannada activists at Chamarajpet held a mock funeral procession of Jayalalithaa. All bus stations in the city were seen deserted.