Date:02/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/02/stories/2009010254770600.htm

National

Bandh over disfigurement of statue

Staff Correspondent

Seeking action: Residents staging a protest in front of the Gandhi bust which was damaged in Garag on Thursday.

DHARWAD: Residents of Garag village observed a bandh on Thursday in protest against the disfigurement of a stone bust of Mahatma Gandhi.

According to the police, some of the villagers noticed the damage to the bust of Gandhiji’s statue on Thursday morning and soon the villagers gathered around the circle, where the bust is installed.

Miscreants had broken a part of the earlobe and damaged the chin portion. Following the incident, the villagers voluntarily closed all shops and observed bandh seeking action against the guilty.

They gathered around the circle and staged demonstration in front of the bust. They demanded that the bust should be replaced within January 26 and the guilty arrested.

Superintendent of Police D. Prakash and other police officials visited the village and assured the protestors of action.

Incidentally it is in the Khadi Gramodyog Kendra in Garag that a national flag manufacturing unit is housed.