BENGALURU: The Bharat Bandh called by farmers between 11am and 3pm on Tuesday seeking repeal of recent farm laws may not affect normal life in the city.
Transport services are unlikely to be hit. KSRTC and BMTC operations may not be disrupted as All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has only extended moral support to the bandh. Namma Metro will run as usual.
Fuel outlets and restaurants will also remain open. However, a few autorickshaw and cab driver unions have decided to join the bandh. Banking services may be affected as several unions of bank workers have supported the farmers’ cause.
The Karnataka Roadside Vendors Association has extended its support to the bandh and said they won’t work on Tuesday.
HV Anantha Subbarao, general secretary of AITUC-backed KSRTC staff and workers federation, said: “We have decided to extend moral support to farmers, but we are not in a position to participate in the bandh.”
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president Kodihalli Chandrashekar said: “About 300 farmers’ organisations will press for their various demands and observe a day-long bandh in cities and towns across the state.”
Chandrashekar, who was in the national capital to back ryots’ agitation on the borders of Delhi, said the present government is making all efforts to browbeat the agitation, but farmers will not budge.
Aikya Horata, a coalition of farmer, labour and Dalit groups, on Monday started an indefinite sit-in protest in the city. The Karnataka Chapter of the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee (AIKSCC), a coalition of several farmer organisations, called for a six-hour bandh on Tuesday.
PC Rao, president of Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association, said they won’t be shutting hotels or bakeries and are not extending support to the bandh. He also said that the association won’t participate in any kind of bandh or protest in future. The move comes after the Covid-19 situation led to losses to the sector.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Congress on Monday announced that it has collected signatures of no less than 2.8 lakh farmers and workers in the state as part of its protest campaign against the state and central government amendments to farm and labour laws.
KPCC president DK Shivakumar said these letters with signatures of farmers and labourers will be sent to the President of India, seeking his intervention. “It is a nationwide campaign and from Karnataka 2.8 lakh signatures on postcards and letters have been collected. We will be sending them to Delhi,” said Shivakumar.