Gangavathi turns red and yellow zone

GANGAVATHI: Jhanda siktadenu? (Can I get a Kannada flag?), this was a question that children posed to each shopkeeper on Kanakagiri Road in Gangavathi on Thursday. The whole town has already become a ‘red and yellow zone’ with Kannada flags and flex boards in the dual colours decorating the streets.Interestingly, people avoided plastic and waved the cloth flags. Koppal district KSP president Shekharagowda Mali Patil told Express that 16,000 flags were ordered by the KSP. “But an hour after the delivery, there was not a single flag left,” he said.In the morning, activists belonging to various Kannada organisations took out a bike rally in Sri Channabasaveshwara Taluka Stadium. Meanwhile, a group of Kannada activists staged an instant dharna in front of the grand stage urging the organising committee to fix one- hour time slot for a detailed discussion on special status to Hyderabad-Karnataka region under Article 371.KSP State president K Nallur Prasad, who inaugurated the ‘Media Centre’, announced that the KSP, by recognising the demand of the activists, had fixed 35 minutes of the open summit for a discussion on special status to HK region. “A resolution will be passed urging the Centre to give special status to the region,” he said.Nallur Prasad said, “This is the fourth annual Kannada meet in my period as State KSP president, and the people of Gangavathi have allayed all my fears about arrangements. I have not seen this kind of response anywhere. Lakhs of people will come on Friday and minor problems may appear. I appeal to the media to neglect those things and highlight the positive aspects.”‘Kambar ignored KSP invite’Prasad turned livid when a reporter drew his attention to the allegation that the KSP deliberately dropped Chandrashekhar Kambar’s name from the invitation and that he was not invited to the Sammelan. “I have personally called Kambar twice, when he claimed to be busy secretary to his home but in vain,” he clarified.Prasad said it was the rule of the KSP to print only those names on the invitation who will adorn the main stage. “The invitation doesn’t carry the names of Anantha Murthy. This doesn’t mean that they have not been invited. All writers are the children of the same mother,” he said.