Karnataka Bandh called by various pro-Kannada outfits led by Karnataka Sanghatanegala Okkuta on Thursday turned violent with a few of the protestors pelting stones at Tirupati-Mangaluru bus in Farangipet. According to the reports, no one was found injured while the bus windows were smashed. Several activists were detained while most of the student leaders were held under house arrest from the morning hours itself. Bangalore University has postponed all postgraduate (PG) exams scheduled for today.
Bringing back the proposals made by the 1983 Sarojini Mahishi’s panel which recommends job reservations to Kannadigas in the state in both the private and public sector, various Kannada organisations called for the bandh. Despite the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s assurance that the government had initiated measures to implement the Sarojini Mahishi report, situations haven’t come under control. Meanwhile, cab services including those from cab aggregators like Ola, Uber and auto services were affected. However, public transportation including the Namma Metro and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) are seen functioning as normal.
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The Sarojini Mahishi panel constituted by Ramakrishna Hegde government recommended a minimum of 80 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in Group ‘B’ jobs and 65 per cent in Group ‘A’ jobs in central government units and PSUs in the state. However, out of the 58 recommendations, 45 were accepted by the state government for implementation.
