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Cauvery bandh logs out India's Silicon Valley

India's very own Silicon Valley, Bangalore, came to an eerie standstill on Thursday on account of a day's bandh (general strike) called by pro-Kannada organisations protesting against the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu.

The bandh, which passed off peacefully, was organized by various Kannadiga organisations, including farmers' bodies, and supported by major political parties.

The strike, which began in the morning, disrupted normal life, with private vehicles and public transport keeping off all city roads. Schools, colleges, markets, banks, cinema theatres, hotels and restaurants, and private offices remained closed throughout the day.

Worst hit was the information technology industry, with global software companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Sasken, and scores of multinational companies like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Texas Instruments, and Huawei Technologies declaring Thursday a holiday.

Spokesmen of firms like Infosys and Wipro told rediff.com that their staff would make up for Thursday's loss of work at the weekend. "We have notified all our employees based in and around Bangalore to report for duty on Saturday in lieu of Thursday, as we did not want to take any chances in the absence of private and public transport," the human resources manager of one company disclosed.

Call centres like General Electric Support Worldwide, I-Seva, CustomerAsset.com, 24x7Customer.com, and a few business process outsourcing firms, however, directed their Wednesday night-shift employees to stay back and work through Thursday, to maintain their round-the-clock services.

"We have asked key employees on the night shift to stay back and carry on the operations as many of their counterparts would not be able to report for the morning shift," one call centre company official stated.

Cable operators across the city suspended the telecast of all Tamil channels to avoid antagonising the sponsors of the bandh, who included the Rajakumar Fan Club, which commands support from the local film industry.

As a precautionary measure, the police had earlier rounded up about 600 people who were on the suspect list of the law-enforcement agencies and believed to be prone to inciting violence.

State transport authorities kept buses off the roads to avoid unruly mobs attacking them or set them afire as had happened during the last such bandh over the Cauvery dispute in 1991. Milk supply, medical shops, and hospitals were, however, exempted from the strike.

Though inter-city and inter-state bus services were affected, trains and flights operated on schedule. But passengers at the airport and the railway station had a harrowing time owing to the absence of private or public transport.

According to Police Commissioner H T Sangliana, nearly 60 platoons of the City Armed Reserve, 24 platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police, and one battalion of the Rapid Action Force were deployed across the city to maintain strict vigil and keep the peace.

The presence of armed policemen prevented any untoward incidents, especially in the Tamil-dominated areas in the east and north of the city, which were tense in the afternoon.

Bangalore has a population of about 6 million, 20 per cent hailing from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the state with which Karnataka has a long-standing dispute over the sharing of the Cauvery's waters.

The state government heaved a sigh of relief over the peaceful bandh, though an uneasy calm prevailed in the neighbouring towns of Mandya, Mysore, Chamrajanagar, and Tumkur, which had witnessed violence and mass agitations over the last one week.

A similar bandh had disrupted life in Bangalore on August 1, 2000, after forest brigand Veerappan abducted matinee idol Rajakumar.

Cauvery Water Dispute: The Complete Coverage

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