By IANS
Bangalore : The police Tuesday stepped up security for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s daughter in Bangalore and intensified vigilance in the Tamil-populated areas in the city as pro-Kannada activists continued protests against Tamil Nadu’s water supply project at Hogenekkal water fall on the border of the two states.
“Security has been strengthened at the residence of the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s daughter Selvi,” Bangalore city police commissioner Neelam Achutha Rao told reporters Tuesday.
Selvi’s house came under attack late last year when her father made certain comments on Hindu god Ram over the Ram Sethu Shipping Canal project in Tamil Nadu.
Police vigilance in areas where Tamilians live in large numbers has also been intensified, a senior police official said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders met Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur to seek central government intervention to stop Tamil Nadu from implementing the Japanese funded Rs.13 billion project on the Hogenekkal waterfall.
“The Tamil Nadu government move is illegal as Hogenekkal belongs to Karnataka. The erstwhile topographical map of the Madras Presidency recognises it as part and parcel of Karnataka,” BJP parliament member H.N. Ananth Kumar said after leading the party delegation to Thakur.
“We have lodged an oral protest” against Tamil Nadu’s decision to implement the project, he said.
Ananth Kumar criticised Karunanidhi for making provocative statements on the issue.
The central government must immediately direct Tamil Nadu to give up the project, he said.
Pro-Kannada activists held demonstrations at several places in Bangalore against the project. They are planning to block trains, Tamil Nadu buses from entering Karnataka and a state shut down if the central government does not act to stop the project, spokespersons of the groups said.
Screening of Tamil films and telecast of Tamil channels will not be allowed in Karnataka till the project is dropped, a meeting of pro-Kannada activists, writers, farmers’ organisations, Dalit groups and filmmakers decided late Tuesday.
“A decision on holding a Karnataka shutdown will be taken on April 3,” D.P. Anjanappa, president of the Bangalore district unit of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Karnataka Protection Forum), that organised the meeting, told IANS.
The meeting adopted an eight-point programme which includes a rally in Chamarajnagar district bordering Tamil Nadu, mounting pressure on central ministers from Karnataka to speak out against Tamil Nadu move and make the central government act to stop the work, Anjanappa said.