Protests in many areas bring city traffic to a crawl

BENGALURU: Core areas of the city also witnessed massive traffic jams on Saturday as four protests by different groups ended up blocking traffic in and around Basavanagudi, Freedom Park, JC Road, Town hall and surrounding areas. Pro-Kannada activists took out a rally from Basavanagudi till Freedom Park, in order to demand jobs for Kannadigas in the private sector companies and the implementation of the ‘Sarojini Mahishi report’.

More than 10,000 people including school students, were part of the rally. Traffic was thrown out of gear in central Bengaluru. Meanwhile, two other groups including auto drivers associations and farmers, also staged protests in the city stalling traffic. The members of auto-rickshaw drivers association staged a protest in front of Town Hall to demand action against RTO officials and alleged  scam in the department over giving permits and other issues, while the farmers from Gadag protested outside the BJP office in Malleswaram.

Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists proceeded from Basavanagudi near the National College Gounds amid high presence of police security. Traffic was affected at Minerva Circle, JC Road, Town Hall, KR Road and Mysore Bank circle as the protesters reached Freedom Park in the afternoon. In Malleswaram, policemen allowed them to sit on the ground instead of letting them inside the BJP office.

BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje approached the farmers to convince them not to protest but in vain.During all this confusion, hundreds of people took part in another rally from the City Railway Station towards Freedom park to demand an investigation by the CID over an alleged real estate scam by Dreams GK and TGS properties.