Curfew waters down protest

A police van was damaged by miscreants and incidents of stone-pelting reported from various residential areas in violence-hit Mandya as the ...

A police van was damaged by miscreants and incidents of stone-pelting reported from various residential areas in violence-hit Mandya as the town remained tense today.

Reporters and photographers in Mandya were injured when police resorted to indiscriminate caning. They included local newsmen as well as those from Bangalore. Mandya District Working Journalists8217; Association president Srikanta condemned the police action and called a protest meet on Friday.

With police clamping curfew, normal life in the town was paralysed for the second day. While an uneasy calm prevailed in Mandya, at Mysore, former minister H.C. Mahadevappa, D.T. Jayakumar, K. Venkatesh, former legislator G.T. Deve Gowda and hundreds of their followers sat on a dharna and courted arrest.

Addressing the activists, Mahadevappa flayed Chief Minister S.M. Krishna for mishandling the Cauvery issue. The demonstrators were arrested by police when they tried to take out a procession from Ramaswamy Circle.

In Mandya town, police resorted to lathicharge and lobbed teargas shells to quell stone-pelting mobs at Guthal, Kyathanagere, Chickamandya and other residential areas.

Heavy police deployment and curfew orders prevented protestors from entering the town. Farmers trying to move into Mandya clashed with the police on the outskirts of the town.

Leaders of the farmers8217; stir arrested yesterday, including former MP G. Made Gowda, and legislators M.S. Athmananada and M.S. Sidharaju, were produced in court and remanded to judicial custody till Nov 14. Speaking to reporters, Made Gowda called on his followers to launch a jail bharo agitation till the CM was unseated.

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Sidharaju flayed the government and said Krishna had turned the state into a 8216;8216;police raj.8217;8217; He said police cannot quell the agitation and claimed that lakhs of farmers would fill up the jails to force Krishna8217;s sacking.