Karnataka Bandh on April 12: Political Parties To Observe Shutdown on Issue of Cauvery Management Board Formation

Bengaluru, April 06: The State of Karnataka will witness a ‘bandh’ on April 12, as announced by several Pro-Kannada political outfits. The call to Karnataka’s bandh was announced on Friday, amidst of protests for setting up a Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

The call of Karnataka bandh came from Vatal Nagaraj, a Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha leader. The call for Karnataka bandh on April 12, was given during the ongoing protests on near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu state border, on Friday.

Nagaraj, who heads a lot of Kannada organisations, also criticised movie actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan for their support on the formation of CMB. He said, “We will not let movies of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan to be showed in Karnataka.”

While observing a state-wide shutdown across Tamil Nadu, the DMK-led opposition parties in the state demanded an early set-up of CMB from the Centre. The demand is a long time one as the political parties have been creating hullaballoo in the state for quite a time now.

The demand is to ensure that the farmers in the state get adequate water, as per the orders of Supreme Court. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam had observed a day-long fast in Chennai, pressing the Centre to form the CMB at the earliest.

A lot of politicising has taken place in the issue, which has resulted in the central theme - farmers' demands - of the controversy take a backstage. Karnataka Assembly Elections are around the corner and it seems that the political parties are only trying to draw mileage from it. With Karnataka set to go polling on May 12, it will be interesting to see how the drama in the formation of Cauvery Management Board unfolds!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2018 07:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).