Villagers protest, bring traffic on NH4 to a halt

Bangalore: National Highway 4 (Tumkur Main Road), which connects the city to north Karnataka districts and northern states, came to a standstill for over an hour on Wedn­esday mo­rning, due to a flash protest carried out by demonstrators from 25 villages surrounding Nelam­a­ngala.

The villagers were prote­sting about the government’s plan to revive Arka­vathy River valley.

The BDA has formed a task force to clear industrial enc­ro­achments on the river basin and swung into action.

Following the high court and government’s directive, the task force has been directed to clear all the industrial encroachment that had taken place in Bengaluru North Taluk under the BDA jurisdiction.

Apart from BDA, dire­ctions have been issued to all the local authorities, urban development auth­orities and boards falling under the river valley basis to clear the encroachments.

The villagers, numbering over few thousands, staged the protest near the Mad­anay­akanahalli junction.

Veh­icles on both sides of the road got piled up for over two kilometres. Three platoons of reserve police and the policemen atta­ched to the Nela­mangala division were pressed into
service.

The villagers blamed the government for allowing them to construct residential buildings des­pite the order. They clai­med they were paying ta­xes.

The pol­ice arrested few protesters, including MLC E Kri­s­hna­­ppa, and took them to Mad­a­nay­akana­halli police station.