BELAGAVI: A massive agitation by Panchamsali Lingayats near Suvarna Vidhana Soudha during the winter session demanding 2-A category reservation turned violent as protesters tried to remove barricades and threw stones while attempting to march towards the building. To control the situation, police resorted to a lathi charge, leaving over 50 protesters and several police personnel injured.
The Belagavi police took about 500 agitators including Basavajaya Mrityunjaya Swami of Panchamasali Peeth, Vijaypura MLA Basanagouda Patil- Yatnal, MLA Aravind Bellad and several other noted Panchamsali leaders into custody.
Earlier, the cabinet minister's HC Mahadevappa, K Venkatesh and Dr MC Sudhakar visited the protest venue at Konduskoppa village in front of SVS and assured agitators of conveying their message to Chief MInister Siddaramaiah. However, the agitators headed by Basavajaya Mrityunjaya Swami and Vijaypura MLA Basangouda Patil- Yatnal were not convinced by the ministers' response.
Mrityunjay Swami said " We (protesters) are waiting for the CM to meet us at the protest site. He should have met us in front of all the agitators and made his stand clear about the giving reservation to the Panchamsalis. A delegation of only two to four people cannot meet him as our demand is serious,'' he said and announced that all the protesters should head towards Rani Channamma statue situated in Suvarna Vidhana Soudha premises to stage a protest until the CM met the protesters.
When the agitators, at least 10,000 of them started moving towards under the leadership of advocates only to be stopped by the police near the national highway, in front of SVS.
In an attempt to barge in, the protesters attempted to remove barricades to gain entry into the Soudha. To pacify the agitators, the police resorted to lathi charge which left many protesters bleeding and severely injured.
Angry over the police action, several protesters began throwing stones on the police and several of them slept on the national highway and brought the movement of vehicles for a grinding halt for around two hours.
To bring the situation under control, the police took more than 500 agitators, including Basavajaya Mrityunjay Swami of Panchamasalli peetha , MLA Basangouda Patil-Yatnal and MLA Aravind Bellad into preventive custody.
In the meantime, the CM and his convoy was given a safe passage by the police to move out of SVS and return to his hotel room, neglecting the protesters. The police blocked the national highway and parked a crane and truck on the road to ensure that the CM's vehicle took the Belagavi city route out of SVS.