The death of an employee of Pandavapura Sahakari Sakkare Karkhane (PSSK), the defunct cooperative sector sugar mill at Pandavapura in the district, sparked a protest on the Srirangapatna-Bidar National Highway at Pandavapura on Wednesday. Vehicular movement was disrupted for nearly 20 minutes.
B.L. Vasanthkumar of Koratagere, who had been working as an electrical engineer at the PSSK since 15 years, was killed in a hit-and-run accident near the mill on Tuesday. His colleagues, relatives and family members kept his body on the highway in front of the mill and demanded the release of pending salaries of the PSSK employees. The mill had not released the salary since the past 28 months. Hence, the family of the deceased had failed to arrange money for his treatment. He died in a hospital in Mysuru, the agitators said. Slogans were raised against the managing director of the mill, Krishnamurthy.
KRRS leader A.L. Kempoo Gowda was present.