Cauvery row: Bengaluru rejects rumours, starts returning to normal

BENGALURU: A bruised Bengaluru was back to normal on Tuesday , even as a man succumbed to the injuries he sustained while fleeing policemen the previous night, taking the Cauvery violence toll in the city to two.
Repeated RAF marches drove home the message that normalcy was on its way . Rumours of unrest dominated social media and TV channels in the morning. But in a dramatic turn by late evening, KSRTC, BMTC buses and Metro started running by 7pm and the government announced schools and colleges will reopen on Wednesday .

Bengaluru city police said curfew in 16 police stations and ban orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code will remain in force until further notice.

Wipro, IBM, Infosys and other IT companies will work on Wednesday . They were either shut or their employees were working from home on Tuesday . Cab-hailing services, too, said they will resume operations on Wednesday .

PM Narendra Modi appealed to the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to display sensitivity and maintain calm, and said the dispute can be solved within the legal ambit. “I am pained“ at the incidents of violence which are “distressful“, the PM added.

Barring two incidents of miscreants setting vehicles on fire and police bursting tear-gas shells to disperse agitators in Nagarabhavi, the city remained calm. As the day wore on, the number of private vehi cles on the roads -especially in the violence-hit areas straddling

Tumakuru Road

in the northwest and Mysuru Road in the southwest -increased. Police said they have arrested 335 persons and detained 500 in connection with Monday's violence.

Earlier in the day , a Tempo Traveller with Tamil Nadu registration was set on fire in Tigalarapalya, north Bengaluru, and a private bus, half burnt on Monday , was set on fire again by Tuesday noon in Timber Yard Layout. Teargas shells were burst near Nagarabhavi to repel a menacing mob. Mild caning was reported from different parts of the city to disperse groups of youths in many areas, including Hegganahalli, where forces' firing claimed a man's life on Monday .

Kumar Chikka Byregowda, 32, a bar-bender, succumbed to the injuries he had sustained after he jumped off the third floor of a building in Byadarahalli, Magadi Road, on Monday night. Kumar had rushed up the building after police ordered a lathicharge to disperse a mob.

Business establishments and private companies remained closed on Tuesday .With schools, colleges, banks and government offices remaining closed on account of Bakrid, the city remained shut. Autorickshaws, radio cabs and hyperlocal delivery services, too, did not function for most part of the day , especially in the affected corridors.Most petrol bunks in the violence-hit areas remained shut.

DG&IGP Om Prakash and police commissioner NS Megharikh visited the trouble spots. Flag marches were staged on Magadi Road, Hegganahalli, New Timber Yard Layout, Mysuru Road satellite bus stand, Guddadahalli, Peenya ndustrial area and Old Madras Road.

Concerts of 3 TN vocalists cancelled

Mysuru: Cauvery-related violence has forced organizers of the Ganesha classical music festival here to cancel the concerts of three noted vocalists from Tamil Nadu.

Mysuru-based Sri Prasanna Vidya Ganapati Mahotsava Charitable Trust on Tuesday cancelled the concerts of TN Krishna, Unnikrishnan and Maharajapuram Ramachandran.

Trust secretary

CR Himamshu

told TOI they are only playing safe. “Musicals are meant to entertain crowds; we did not want to invite any trouble,“ he added. TNN