Farmers Movement Archive

Ahead of Bharat Bandh, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai urges farmers to ‘cooperate’

The Karnataka government on Sunday appealed to the farming community to “cooperate” after union leaders supported the call for a Bharat Bandh on Monday. Appealing to farmer organizations to cooperate, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said, “Due to Covid (lockdowns), business and economic activities have just restarted after struggling for 1.5 years. In such times, I would request the farmers organizations to cooperate,” he said on Sunday. The statements come a day ahead of the proposed Bharat Bandh for which farmers unions in Karnataka have extended support. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka said that there would be no stoppage of any services. “Under any circumstances there is no question of supporting the bandh. Our buses will ply without any problems and the public will not be inconvenienced,” B Sriramulu, Karnataka’s minister for transport and scheduled tribes welfare said on Sunday. He added that it was the Congress party that was misleading farmers for its own benefit over the contentious farm laws. Kodihalli Chandrashekar, the president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) on Sunday said that the farmer organisations are doing everything possible to make the bandh a success.He said that there would be several people participating in the bandh who would come in from different directions into Bengaluru and end the rally in Mysuru bank circle near the central business district. Chandrashekar even estimated that around 8,000-10,000 people would participate in the Bandh. Several other farmer organisations and activist groups have also made plans to join the bandh. The Karnataka government on Friday had decided to relax some restrictions and said that it would allow for 100% occupancy in cinema halls from October 1 in places where the Covid positivity rate is lower than 1%. The Basavaraj Bommai government has said that in places where the positivity rate is higher than 1%, cinema halls would have only 50% occupancy permission and closure if it is higher than 2%. The same rules will apply to pubs from October 3. The government has also allowed five days of school for students of classes 6 to 12 with 100% occupancy.

Hindustan Times

27-09-2021

Bangalore