Agitators in Belagavi foil high security plan

BELAGAVI: Sugarcane farmers outsmarted police on Monday as hundreds of them blocked the Pune-Bengaluru NH-4 near the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (SVS) here at 3.30pm, foiling the high security plans drawn up to keep them out.
The police department had allotted a site to the farmers on the outskirts of Kondaskop village, 4 km from SVS, to stage their dharna.It deployed posses of police personnel and installed CCTV cameras along the stretch of the route to SVS from the protest site, put out a drone fitted with a camera to keep a watch on the farmers and kept on standby more than 40 buses to take farmers breaching the barricades into custody.
But the plans were no match for the farmers' intent. Farmers' leaders had set a deadline of 2pm for the government to make an announcement on clearing pending dues, warning that they would lay siege to the SVS on failure to do so.
Several farmers' organization also sent out a clarion call for a Jail Bharo movement. When the deadline lapsed, hundreds of farmers began courting arrest by taking over NH-4. They even staged a sit-in inside the buses brought for their arrest. Despite many of their leaders like Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, Kuruburu Shantakumar and Kadidal Shyamanna being immediately taken into police custody, the farmers refuse to budge. The highway was blocked off by the protesters till late in the evening.
Refusing CM's olive branch
The farmers' leaders refused% to accept an invitation from chief %minister Siddaramaiah for a discussion. They demanded that he or sugar minister Mahadeva Prasad visit the agitation site and announce a solution to their problems. It was reportedly the first time that the Karnataka State Sugarcane Farmers' Organization, headed by Shantakumar and Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangh, led by Chandrashekhar, along with a farmers' organization headed by MLA Puttannaiah, joined hands.
Kodihalli urged farmers not to commit suicide under distress. "If you are not able to repay your loans to banks, don't even try to do so. We will not allow properties to be seized."